Undercover Boss (2010) s04e06 Episode Script
Mood Media
Male announcer: This week, on Undercover Boss The CEO of Mood Media, the world's largest in-store media provider, poses as a failed nightclub owner.
- I'm Beau, nice to meet you.
- Beau, how you doing? - Pleasure.
- Welcome to my world.
Announcer: His employees think he's on a reality show, competing to win a new job.
What do you do to keep your teeth so white? You know, I've used whitener.
- It burns a little bit.
- What the All right.
Announcer: By working undercover, this high-powered CEO will find out what it really takes to make his business run.
That's not right.
- We gotta go get some ladders.
- Okay.
You're not afraid to be up high, are you? I hope not, because you're gonna do it anyway.
Announcer: What will happen when the boss confronts his fear of heights? I don't wanna see you going [Laughs.]
I was terrified.
You're gonna have to go up one more step.
And don't look down.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
They've already started closing offices.
A lot of the people here are legitimately worried about their jobs.
And are you worried about that? Mm-hmm.
Announcer: And an unexpected reunion will change his life forever.
It'd be nice to know if we can have some kind of a relationship.
Announcer: Coming up next, on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x06 - Mood Media Original air date January 4, 2012 Announcer: Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mood Media provides in-store media to more than 590,000 locations throughout 48 countries.
With $1/2 billion in annual revenue, this media mogul plays more songs a day than all of the largest radio stations combined.
Overseeing the 2,500 employees across the globe is one man.
My name is Lorne Abony.
I'm the CEO and chairman of Mood Media.
Mood Media is one of those companies that you've invariably experienced without knowing that you've experienced us.
When you walk into a store, you're hearing music.
We provide the music in-store.
We play over 140 million songs a day.
You'll sometimes see signs, digital displays, and even closed-circuit security systems, and those things are provided by us.
Mood Media was founded 75 years ago, originally as a business called Muzak.
[Soft music plays.]
Muzak was a great American brand, but today, it doesn't have the right connotation for our current business.
We've moved a long way from providing elevator music, and we actually no longer provide music in elevators.
Mood Media is basically in every retail experience that you come across.
Our customers are restaurants, hotels, stores, gyms, shopping malls.
We are about creating a 360-degree experience for our customers.
Music in-store, video in-store helps people stay longer, be more comfortable, and buy more.
I grew up in Toronto, Canada.
I'm an only child.
We had very, very little money growing up.
My parents got divorced when I was very young.
My mother sacrificed everything for me.
We lived in government subsidized housing.
She was, uh she, uh she brought me up by herself.
My dad wasn't involved in a great part of my life.
I remember waiting for my dad to come to pick me up on visits, or other times that he was supposed to be there, and he just didn't come.
He didn't come to any of my graduations, and that was a very painful experience for me, and so the decision to not have him part of my life today is really a decision to ensure that I don't feel that way anymore.
I definitely think that my childhood impacted the kind of person I've become.
When I was younger, I probably got a lot of my sense of self-worth from my academic accomplishments.
I have two law degrees, and I have a MBA from Columbia Business School.
Growing up with financial hardship had been a great benefit for me as a CEO.
I treat money with the seriousness with which it deserves.
[Grunting.]
I'm extremely competitive in everything I do.
Myself and my tennis partner are ranked second in the U.
S.
in the men's over 40.
We will be ranked first soon.
[Grunts.]
Well, everyone, as you know, I'm going undercover.
I'm just generally nervous.
And, you know, do you have any suggestions? Well, if you're gonna go out with one of my technicians, please don't fall off a ladder.
[Laughter.]
I've always been an entrepreneur, and always worked for myself.
I became involved in this business because I saw a great opportunity.
When I started as CEO four years ago, we were doing about $2 million in revenue.
We had less than ten employees.
Today, we are close to $500 million in revenue.
We have 2,500 employees, and we're really transforming the retail landscape in America.
It's hot and itchy, all right.
As a CEO, I'm good with numbers.
My background's in finance, and I'm very comfortable making decisions around numbers.
I'm very excited to go undercover because I'm gonna have a firsthand opportunity to meet some of the people that I actually only know through spreadsheets and financial models.
Holy cow.
I have never put together any of our technologies.
I have never been on any installs.
I'm hoping to learn what they need to make this an even greater company.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Beau Sinnott, a failed nightclub owner looking for a chance to start a new life.
Throughout my undercover journey, my employees will be tricked into thinking they're on a hosted reality show in which they'll work alongside Beau, and then decide whether he deserves to win his dream job at Mood Media.
I've got Leila here to my left.
And Leila is a dispatcher here at Mood Media.
The woman pretending to be the host of the fake show will keep asking questions on whether Beau deserves his dream job.
So my employees will have no idea that this is secretly Undercover Boss.
I spend a lot of time traveling.
I have offices in 48 different countries.
I have a wonderful wife and two amazing children.
Hi, honey.
What do you think? [Gasps.]
He has a slight resemblance to daddy.
Does daddy look funny? I'm not always home, but, you know, my boys will never have to worry about money like I did.
Today, I'm in Austin, Texas, at the DMX offices.
At Mood Media, we've grown by acquisition, and DMX is a company that we recently acquired.
DMX does a lot of the same work as Mood Media does.
DMX has a great background music and messaging business.
I'm here to see Leila.
She'll be on your right hand side.
Thank you so much.
The most important thing in running a business is how you treat the customer.
So today, I'm going to be working in dispatch.
Dispatch handles any problems that arise with existing customers.
Problems can range from a malfunctioning sound system at a restaurant to a flickering video monitor at a retail location.
I think this will be a great opportunity to see how the customers are treated and how they're serviced, because it's the most important thing that we can do.
- Hi, Leila.
- Hi.
Hi, I'm Beau.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Pleasure.
Take a seat.
Oh, you have beautiful teeth.
- Oh, thanks.
- Oh, my.
Beautiful teeth.
Hello.
- Thanks.
- Your name is Beau? It is.
When Leila commented on my teeth, I was a little self-conscious.
What do you do to keep your teeth so white? Well, I, I, uh you know, I've used whitener before.
How does that work? Does it make it, like, sensitive? - It burns a little bit.
- What the I'm not tryin' to burn my mouth, so we're not gonna do that.
[Laughs.]
Beau's got the look, he's got the attitude.
Yeah, Beau's pretty much a hipster.
This is it.
Basically, we get service calls from customer service.
We find a technician that's qualified, we send him out to the location.
He fixes the problem, everyone's good.
This is the person that called in and said "this is my issue.
" It says the music is skipping.
I'm gonna pull up the ZIP code.
This are all a nice little list of technicians that are in this area.
This technician his name is Harold.
I'm gonna call Harold, and I'm gonna give you a headset so you can kind of listen in and hear me talk to him.
Okay, I will listen.
[Phone rings.]
I can hear perfect.
Hello, Harold speaking.
[Squealing.]
Harold! What are you doing? [Laughs.]
What you got going on? So I have a question.
I want to see if you have time on your schedule tomorrow to check out an Ann Taylor for me.
Yeah, yeah.
Don't you worry.
- We'll get it taken care of.
- Perfect.
I thought Leila had a delightful disposition.
She seems to make work fun.
Since we merged with Mood Media, we're beyond huge.
So this is just one of the many.
Like bringing in the ones from Mood Media and from Yeah.
So now that we have this saved, I now have to create it into a PDF file to be sent to the tech.
Now I'm going to get into the complicated stuff.
That wasn't the complicated stuff? No.
[Laughs.]
I'm going to have you sit in the hot seat.
The thought that was going through my mind is, "there is no chance of knowing" "all of those things so quickly.
" I want you to copy the ZIP code from that page and enter.
Now, we're going to put the E.
T.
A.
in there.
- So the E.
T.
A.
is - Tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
I'm gonna scoot along and get you to call the client.
Okay.
Oh, I'm nervous like a mother [Phone ringing.]
I'm nervous too.
[On phone.]
Hi, this is Whitney.
Hi, Whitney.
It's Beau calling from DMX about your service issue.
How are you? - Good.
- Good.
I'm just calling to let you know that a tech will be out to service uh, provide you the service tomorrow.
Okay, sounds good.
And, uh, he will call you prior to, uh - to arriving.
- Perfect.
- Okay? - All right, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
Bam! That's right! - So we're gonna do one more.
- Okay.
So far, what I'm seeing is that DMX is not only standing up to Mood Media's standards Paging is down.
It's at the Saks.
It's setting a great example for the rest of the company.
Yeah, put it down for tomorrow.
- Great.
Thanks, Steve.
- Thanks, Steve.
[Squealing.]
Good job.
Good.
Okay, let's eat.
I'm hungry.
Okay, perfect.
- So you used to own a club? - I did.
Well, there's a lot of different areas at DMX that would probably suit you.
You know, I thought I was coming to Mood Media, and then, you know, you keep talking about DMX.
- The merger? - Yeah.
Well, Mood Media actually acquired DMX not too long ago, so we're now one big family.
And when they actually brought us in for the announcement, a lot of the veterans that had been here for years were like, "are you kidding me?" "This is, like, our biggest rival," - "and we're now a family?" - Right, wow.
How is this gonna work? They've already started closing offices.
A lot of the people here are legitimately worried about their jobs.
When you look at a spreadsheet of bringing two businesses together, you look at employee 1, 2, 3, and it's different to look into their eyes and see that her or her colleagues are concerned about their job.
And are you worried about that? Mm-hmm.
This is where I've forged my home.
My boyfriend and I just leased a home together.
But when that lease is up, I'm probably gonna be moving to pursue my career for school.
So tell me about school.
I've always wanted to be a vet.
I have four dogs, so my dogs are my kids.
I just have to worry about my finances.
Going to college is expensive.
And that's what I'm worried about.
All right, well, I don't even see any more chicken in here.
So you ready to go? Let's get back to work.
I learned today that DMX really understands customer care.
Hopefully, it seems a little easier now that you're doing it.
Leila not only did that job very well I admire that she wants to put herself through school.
I can really respect that.
We're gonna let them know that we have a tech that's scheduled for tomorrow.
Okay.
Announcer: Coming up, the boss hears what an installer really thinks of his company.
They'll expect us to put a speaker like this - into a poured concrete ceiling.
- Right.
And we're like, you know, come on.
Announcer: And later, Lorne confronts his past.
I love you unconditionally.
Always will.
Today, I'm in Long Island, New York, at Moe's Southwest Grill, working with an installer.
At this location, we're going to be installing Mood Media's state-of-the-art digital sound system.
The right sound enhances the customers' experience and keeps the customers coming back, so it is extremely important that we get this right.
I am nervous, because I have no experience installing sound systems, so this is as far out of my comfort zone as I could possibly be.
- Hi, John.
- Hey.
I'm Beau.
Nice to meet you.
Hey, Beau.
Nice to meet you too.
- How are you? - Good, good.
- Good.
- I understand, uh, I'm gonna give you a little bit of job training.
Go over, you know, the sound system installation.
Basically, what we got here, they're gonna get a total of seven speakers, and the first thing we want to do, basically, is, we have our standard 2x2-foot tile.
I know that our speaker diameter is 8 inches, so we're gonna set this guy up for 4.
All right, so why don't you go right in, spin it around.
Okay.
Yeah, there you go.
Keep that centered.
You're making a nice mark.
That's pretty good right there.
Start on your line.
I generally like to keep, like, maybe a little bit on the outside of the line.
Just relax.
Take your time.
You got it.
I'm just gonna finish prepping this.
I usually sit in a nice, comfortable board chair.
I usually am typing emails, looking at financial models or presentations, and certainly not with a knife.
All right, you're getting to the end.
Good.
And let that drop right in.
Looks like we're a little small on that.
- Yeah.
- Oops.
Obviously, it's not right on.
I'm just gonna round it out a little.
Okay.
Get those edges.
Here's one of our speakers.
This should, hopefully, go right in, which it does.
That's all in.
Let's put back our grill.
So what part of the country are you from, Beau? I'm I'm originally from Detroit.
Where are y are you from here originally? - Yes.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
Just push that in.
Right, a little bit - There we go.
- Look at that.
See if you can hold it on the underside, like this.
So do you have family too? - Yes.
- Yeah? Yeah, I've got three wonderful children.
Oh, wow.
How old? - Um, 25-year-old - Wow.
And a 23-year-old.
She's getting married next month.
- Oh, congratulations.
- And a 13-year-old.
What we want to do, we have the feed line that I ran for it.
- Just carefully help me lift.
- Yeah.
Hoo! [Sighs.]
John, is your daughter going on a honeymoon? Yeah, I been saving for about three months now.
She asked if I could be the one to help you know, she wants to go to Hawaii, so - How exciting.
- Yeah, and at least that'll be one less thing she'll have to worry about.
John is a family man.
He loves his children.
Give it, like, a little twist.
Even though they're grown, you can see how much he still wants to take care of them, and I really respect that.
All right, so we're ready for the next one.
I guess, uh, pretty much, you can start.
I'll be up ahead, doing another one.
All right.
All right.
Oops.
Gonna screw these in.
Looks like we're a little small on that.
Gonna go with a fresh one here.
I think Beau was kind of surprised over the job tasks that we were doing.
The installation work is not easy.
He was a little bit slow, and you gotta do what's needed and necessary to get the job done.
Looking at a technical opportunity here, you might be looking into, like, a managerial position.
[Laughs.]
Yeah, I mean, there's um, yeah.
It's good to know, like yeah, watch your line.
Um, like, one of my biggest complaints through the years have been, like, how certain jobs weren't visited by the people that, you know, sell them.
And they won't know if it's, like, push-up tile, or if it's sheet rock, or sometimes it could be poured concrete, and, you know, we'll go into certain situations where they'll expect us to put a speaker like this - into a poured concrete ceiling.
- Right.
And we're like, you know, "come on.
" You know, nobody obviously didn't look at the job - or scope it out, so - Right.
You know, if you could straighten that up, you know, that would be, like, one of the best things.
If I end up in management, I'll definitely Yeah.
It was clear to me today, working with John, that there's not perfect communication between the salespeople and our tech force, and when I get back to the office, that's something that I will address immediately.
Okay, let's go on to the next.
This process has been much more eye-opening for me than I actually thought it was going to be.
I know our company's successful, but after working with Leila and John, I'm realizing that I've been so focused on the bottom line that I haven't realized the problems our employees face that make their jobs more difficult.
These people give their heart and soul to Mood Media on a daily basis, and we need to do a better job supporting them.
I'm here at the Planet Fitness in Atlanta, Georgia, and I will be working with one of our installers to do a closed-circuit security system install.
My first install job with John was putting in one of the most traditional products.
However, we install a lot more than just background music systems.
Digital signage products and closed-circuit security systems represent an opportunity to grow our business well beyond just music, and so this is you know, this is something I'm very excited to see.
- Eileen? - Yeah, hi.
Hi, I'm here for the tech job.
I'm Beau.
- Hi.
Hey, Beau.
- Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
What we're doing is, we're installing a CCTV system.
You see right up there? - Camera? - That's a camera, okay.
First thing we gotta do is, we gotta go get some ladders.
- Okay.
- You're not afraid to be up high, are you? I hope not, because you're gonna do it anyways, okay? [Laughs.]
I'm a little afraid of heights, but Okay, well, don't worry about it.
- All right.
Okay.
- Just don't look down, and you'll be fine.
I actually couldn't really focus on anything she was saying.
I was terrified by the height of the ceilings All right.
And by the height of the ladders.
You get up there.
- All right, I - Go ahead.
Okay, and the ladder looks safe to you? You're not used to ladders, huh? Not really.
Not Okay, don't ever try and reach what's not safe, 'cause I don't want to see you going [Laughs.]
Yeah, I don't really want to see me doing that either.
And I don't want to dial 911 either, so okay? - Go get - All right, are you holding - the ladder, or? - No.
- No? - You're on your own.
- Yeah, wait, what? - You can do it.
- All right.
- All right? - Yeah.
- Get on up there.
I'm gonna push you the wire.
Go ahead.
You're okay.
Don't look down.
You're all right.
Just stay center of the ladder.
You're gonna be all right.
All right? I have never seen anybody react to having to step up on a ladder the way Beau does.
You're gonna have to go up one more step.
And don't look down.
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Announcer: Lorne Abony, the CEO of Mood Media, is a boss undercover in his own company.
Hi, I'm here for the tech job.
- I'm Beau.
- Hi.
Announcer: His employees think he's a former nightclub owner participating in a hosted reality show, competing to win a new job.
You're gonna have to go a little higher.
Announcer: But right now, he might be in over his head.
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
This seems a little wobbly.
Eileen? This seem safe to you? This ladder's set? Everything's fine? I still think it is.
I don't ever go on a ladder, and I was very concerned that I was going to fall off.
Coming at ya.
I need you to get that wire.
- Okay.
- Pull it some.
A lot of the times, we don't have the luxury of having anybody else helping us, just so you know that.
I really can't even imagine doing this at all, let alone by myself.
[Laughs.]
All right, we're gonna put a camera up.
Ah, you'll be running up this thing soon.
- Yeah.
- So what did you do before you didn't do whatever you're not doing? Oh, yeah, well, I had a nightclub that I owned, so - Really? - Yeah, in Detroit.
And you never had to go change a lightbulb, or anything? - No, I and not - No? I'm a little afraid of heights, actually, - to be honest.
- Oh, you're doing fine.
- You're doing fine.
- All right.
I'll take the camera.
And this baby's gonna come right through here.
So we're stripping the wire back.
All right, which one we using for power? Oh, um, uh, plus is black? No.
Have you never opened the hood of your car? Normally, red is positive.
All right, can you do me a positive and a negative? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- Give me the other gizmo.
So do you have any questions? I mean, one of the reasons I wanted to get, you know, a job at Mood is retirement, and security for my family, and kind of for the long term.
- Have you been able to? - I've been able to sock some into the 401K, but you know, that big crash was, like, ugly.
- Right.
- So I stopped contributing.
- Right.
- Let's see what you did.
Okay.
All right.
How does that look? - Looks good.
- Yeah? Yeah.
See, I could train you.
I could get you I could get you there.
You're so positive.
- I think [laughs.]
- You're so positive.
- Do we have picture? - Wow, we do, yeah.
- Oh, my gosh.
Okay.
- Perfect.
- There's our club.
- Wow.
And we're gonna bring it down a little bit.
That's fantastic.
Okay, so now Hang onto that, 'cause we don't want to lose it.
Okay, yeah.
I'm sorry.
- Stuck in my ladder.
- Yeah.
Come on down.
I thought, coming in, that I was not very good at these types of jobs.
I'm now convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am absolutely terrible.
We're gonna go outside, we're gonna get some fresh air.
Okay, great.
I'm disgusted with myself, is the honest truth.
- So you got a wife.
- I do, yeah.
And what about you with family? - I've got a partner.
- You have a partner, right.
For, like, close to 30 years, and we've got her nephews, and they were in a home that wasn't just wasn't good, you know, and instead of them going into foster care, they asked if a family member could take them, and Karen and I, you know, it was like, "yeah.
" - Good for you.
- Yeah.
Good for you.
Yeah, kids are wonderful.
They are.
They're fun.
We consider 'em our guys.
We've tried to do as much as we possibly could for 'em.
- Right.
- Yeah.
I thought, from every perspective, Eileen was a wonderful individual.
She has been with her partner for 30 years.
She brings up four children.
You know, today was very difficult.
- We're not done yet.
- Yeah, we're not done.
Don't be like, "it's over" yet.
- I'm just having a cigarette.
- You're right.
You're right.
[Laughs.]
Right.
The way Eileen works hard to support her family reminds me of how hard my mother worked as a single parent.
All right, come on.
I apologize.
I'm really trying.
Okay, quit saying you're sorry.
She's just the type of person you just want to help.
Today, I'm at our regional office in Atlanta, and I'll be working as a rack fabricator.
Part of the reason we've been so successful is because we're very hands-on with what we do, from installing and repairing our systems to manufacturing our own equipment.
A rack fabricator assembles all of our equipment from scratch before it's shipped out to our customers.
- Hi, I'm here for Devin.
- Hey, how you doing? I'm Devin.
Hey, Devin, I'm Beau.
Nice to meet you.
Beau, how are you? Welcome to my world.
- [Laughs.]
Oh, thank you.
- Um What I do, I build racks all day.
Okay.
Hopefully, you like my job, 'cause I love my job.
- Great.
- So you know much about racks, - and - I really don't.
Really don't? That's that's cool.
No, I don't know much about that.
When Beau walked in, I could see that he was really nervous, so you know, I tried to take it easy on him.
By the end of the day, you'll be a expert, trust me.
Okay, great.
This is what we call a rack, and what it does is either play music, video, whatever kinda the customer wants.
As you see, we wire them all up from scratch.
We make every single wire.
Right now, I'm gonna start you out on actually making RCA wires.
Take one RCA you know a standard, regular RCA.
So you're gonna use this as a wire stripper.
- You could take my seat.
- Okay, thank you very much.
Yeah, please.
- Sit down, be here for awhile.
- Okay.
So you get a wire like this.
Make sure that this sleeve is in the little ring.
- Right.
- And just kinda - and the tip out that distance.
- Right.
Just bite all the way down.
You're not gonna break it.
Pull this off? - There you go.
All right? - Okay, good.
So you'll always have three wires.
This is where, basically, your sound goes through.
Go ahead and tie the ground and your common together.
Okay.
These racks, when they ship out to the customer, they have to be in tip-top shape, because once they get there, it's plug-and-play.
A lot of detail.
Oh, yes.
Detail is the key to this.
Sometimes, my rack will show up two days before the opening of the hotel, and they have no room for us to make a mistake.
We have to solder it, make sure it stays on there tight.
Use your solder and tin them now.
Get your gun right on there.
We call that "tinning the wire".
I'd never used a soldering iron before.
I'd never actually seen anyone solder anything before, so I didn't want to burn him or me.
Hold it like a pencil.
That might help better.
Yeah, there you go.
And lay it on top of your ground.
Just lay it there.
Then you do the same with the top.
[Clears throat.]
Oops.
Well, that's not right.
Now, let me see.
Did you do it correct? Yes.
Would I let this out? No, I would not.
You see how you have your wires hanging out? That could cause a short.
If I didn't do this correctly, and it went out, got in your nightclub, you got got everybody in there, mixing.
One side goes out, and now, you've got customer leaving.
Imagine that phone call I would get the next morning.
That one wire could cost you millions of dollars.
Devin saw that his job was part of a much larger business, and he recognized that he was a very important piece of the puzzle, and I was I was just delighted.
[Metal grinding.]
There you go.
Now, we have to put the next unit in.
AM/FM radio, as you see right here.
So we pull out all the feet.
So do you live close to work? I live right ten minutes down the street, - with my older brother, so - Right.
My older brother gave me this opportunity - to come stay with him.
- Yeah? Had me in some tough situations, you know? I left home when I was 17.
I was doing good, and all of a sudden, really down on my luck.
Homeless, really Yeah, it was going all bad for me.
- So it's worked out since - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've - Getting back to? - Yeah, so And I'm trying to save up for a house.
That's one of my dreams, and hopefully, have my younger brother stay with me as well.
- Yeah.
- Same thing my older brother's doing for me, I want to do for him.
- Right.
- "Stay with me," "get on your feet, and we'll have you," and I'm trying my best to help him take care of his son, - and - Right.
Plus, my mother's getting older, and you know, why not? - Come stay with me as well.
- Right.
Good for you.
That's that's wonderful.
- That's the goal.
- And how about your dad? Uh, I kinda just reconnected with him.
- Yeah? - I stopped talking to him for about a good close to ten years.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, when I left college, that was kind of the last time I got in contact with him, and I've had that with my dad too.
I've, like - Yeah? - Gone a long time - not talking to him.
- Yeah.
With my parents being divorced, you know, it comes with a lot of anger.
- My parents are divorced too.
- Yeah, so and He had a lot of anger still built up, and you know, just one night, he was drinking real heavy, and just kinda went the wrong road, and I don't want to get too far into detail, but my uncle died, my grandma died within the same year - I'm sorry.
- That's when I value not to hold onto grudges, I mean, we're too prideful.
Devin has a similar set of life experiences to me.
I've had a strained relationship with my father.
That might be a man's biggest downfall, is our pride.
[Laughs.]
"I'm not gonna talk first.
He needs to talk first.
" - "It's his fault.
" - Wow, is that true.
Yeah, and at the end of the day, does it really matter? It I learned to let my pride go, but my father's gonna take a little bit more time.
- At least we're talking, so - I had the same thing.
- Really? - Years and years and years and years of, you know, not talking to my dad.
But you got over it, hopefully.
Well, I might just take your advice, and - You know - I think you should, man.
You don't want to wait till somebody has passed, and you be like, "I wish I could've said this," "got this off my chest.
" Yeah, I mean, life's short, man.
Life life is really short, and don't want to live with regrets.
You know? All right, well, yeah, thank you.
You know, I thought that his advice was very insightful, and he was very forthcoming with me, and he seemed to genuinely care.
There you go.
It was very impactful for me.
That's a good sign for a rack builder.
Now, it's time to ship your rack out.
Okay.
I was caught off guard that Devin had a similar relationship with his father and decided to make peace with his father.
Devin has a very compelling point, that life is really short, and there really is no reason to hold grudges, but I will probably always be mad for what I can't really understand, which is, you know, not showing your son that you love them, and not being there for some of the most important things in my entire life.
I don't think I'll, you know, ever be over that.
But this experience is making me realize I need to open my heart and mind a little more.
Announcer: How will the employees react when they find out Beau is really the boss? I'm Lorne Abony.
I'm the CEO and chairman of Mood Media.
Announcer: And how will Lorne react when he sees his father for the first time in more than a decade? You know, I've had a chance to think about things, and I only have one dad.
Say good-bye to Beau.
This has been one of the best experiences of my life.
I've learned that my job is not more important than any of the other and I want to have a chance to give back to them, because they have given so much to make this such a great company.
My employees have been summoned to an office in New York City.
They think they're here to judge Beau's performance.
What the heck? Oh, my God, Beau.
How are ya? [Laughs.]
How are you? You're looking good today.
You clean up nice.
[Clears throat.]
So how'd Beau do? [Laughs.]
Uh, you did great [Laughs.]
You are Beau! What do you mean, "how is Beau?" So do you know who I am? No.
[Laughs.]
- You don't? [Laughs.]
- No.
[Laughs.]
I'm not really Beau.
I'm Lorne Abony.
I'm the CEO and chairman of Mood Media.
[Chuckles.]
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Wow.
- Hello.
[Laughs.]
- How you doing? Wow, it's a pleasure, a pleasure.
An honor, an honor.
- Pleasure to meet you too.
- Wow.
Uh, hi.
- Hi.
- [Laughs.]
Hi.
Leila, you were incredibly gracious with our customers and with our technicians.
I want to see if you have time to check out an Ann Taylor for me.
[On phone.]
Yeah, yeah.
We'll get it taken care of.
Perfect.
You were fantastic.
- Thank you.
- So it was great.
You know, I listened to you, and you said that you were concerned about your job since Mood Media merged with your company.
[Chuckles.]
You're so customer-focused and so polite on the phone, and I don't want to lose the best employees, so I want you to know that you will have a job - as long as you want one.
- [Laughs.]
Oh, my God.
And you shared with me just how much you love animals.
I too love animals.
I have two German Shepherd dogs - Oh! - That I love.
So what I would like to do is make a donation in your name - of $5,000 - Oh, my God.
To an animal charity for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Wow.
Okay.
Thank you.
I want to do something else.
You know, you're trying to figure out whether you should go to school.
- I want to give you $15,000 - Oh, my God.
For you to further your education.
[Sighs.]
I don't know what to think right now.
Thank you for absolutely everything, and being just awesome.
Thank you.
[Sighs.]
Thank you.
It's really overwhelming, 'cause I've never had anybody do something like that for me, and I don't know, this is just the biggest blessing I never thought I could ever have.
Oh, my God.
This is definitely, definitely, definitely gonna be the start of my life.
John, let me tell you, I was touched by the integrity of your character.
I was blown away.
It's an honor to have people like you working at Mood Media.
- Wow.
- You mentioned to me that, you know, sometimes, our salespeople will sell a job, and they won't have, you know, even attended at the job - Yeah.
- Then the techs, you know, don't have the right tools, et cetera, and I listened to that, and I would like to offer you a job as a supervising engineer, to make sure that we don't sell a job that isn't completely spec'd out, and because, by bringing this to our attention, you're going to save us a lot of money, I want to make your life a little bit easier.
You told me about saving up for your daughter's honeymoon.
John, I want to give you $40,000 to use however you wish.
Extremely generous.
Extremely generous.
I this this is amazing.
[Laughs.]
And I would love to offer you, you know, an invitation to her wedding.
I mean I was going to ask you if I could get invited to your daughter's wedding, but I thought that that might be too presumptuous.
That is just one of the most un incredible gestures of generosity that I've ever received from anybody.
It's like hitting the lottery, or something.
I I this is just gonna it's gonna help my life out tremendously, and, um I don't know if you're I just I'm just so grateful.
I want the world to know about Mood Media, 'cause Mood Media rocks.
[Laughs.]
Eileen, it doesn't really get much better than you.
I mean, you've been at Mood Media for 25 years.
You have been with your partner for 27 years.
You have taken on four children.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for you.
You're gonna make me cry.
[Laughing.]
This is crazy.
Okay, go ahead.
Don't let me stop you.
No, I'm loving this.
Go ahead.
I would like to do a couple things that I hope will make a difference in your life.
I have two children of my own, and I know just how hard it is to bring up children.
And I would like to give you $10,000 to be used however you wish - towards your children.
- Wow.
Well, it'll definitely help put a dent in some of the extra expenditures we've incurred through the years.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
You told me that your 401K had suffered pretty significantly.
And so I would like to give you $25,000 so that you can restart the 401K and get back on the right track.
I appreciate it, Lorne.
I really do.
Wow.
[Sighs.]
This is so much to take in.
[Laughs.]
This is a lot for me.
Jeez! - And finally - There can't be any more.
You told me about your partner.
The first thing I thought about is whether or not your partner had benefits.
- Mm-hmm.
- Effective today Mm-hmm.
Mood Media will always provide same-sex partner benefits.
It's approximately a $200,000 a year cost to us.
- Wow.
- But it's something that I think is essential.
I know there are probably a lot of people that'd be grateful.
Grateful.
Thank you so much, Lorne.
[Laughs.]
I'm so happy.
I'm just so happy.
I'm humbled by humbled by you, as a person.
- Mmm.
- So - We have to hug again.
- Gotta hug.
Yay.
I'm just overwhelmed.
I'm thrilled.
The money definitely makes things a lot easier for us.
And having Lorne to look into my 401K so that I can retire.
Plus, he's changed a policy Mood Media had about domestic partner benefits.
I'm just still so in shock.
Devin, I want to tell you I loved working with you.
I loved you working with me.
It was fun.
Your attention to detail, I was just so impressed with.
Thank you.
And you actually shocked me when you said that you had a strained relationship with your father.
I've gone years without speaking to my father.
So when you told me that you made up with your father, it meant a lot to me, and I'm considering getting back in touch with my father.
Good.
Glad to hear that.
You know, family means everything to me, and you're helping taking care of your brother's son, and that your mother lives with you, and that all you wish for in life is, you know, health and well-being of your family.
Right.
So I would like to give you $30,000 to use however you see fit for you and your family.
Are you serious? [Laughs.]
- I'm 100% serious.
- Oh, wow.
Thank you.
[Laughs.]
Oh, my goodness.
I mean, that's gonna help out so much.
My mother's gonna be happy.
Take care of her.
[Laughs.]
To take care of her.
Oh, wow.
Thank you so much again.
- My pleasure.
- Awesome.
"Awesome" is the only word I can use.
You made a lot of people's lives different.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
Thank you so much.
What Lorne is doing for me is more than he could ever imagine.
Lorne's not only giving me money, but he's giving me me and my family a future to look forward to and a stronger bond.
This has been a very exhausting week undercover, but there's one thing I still have left to do.
This process has caused me to think carefully about myself and think carefully about what matters.
Thank you.
I don't think that harboring resentment helps anyone, and I only have one dad.
Hi, dad.
- Hi, buddy.
- Thanks for coming.
It's my pleasure.
We've had some tough times.
There were times as a kid that I didn't feel, you know, quite as loved as I would have wanted to feel.
But, I, um you know, I've had a chance to think about things in a different way, and I only have one dad.
And I you know, I want you to be part of my life.
I want you to be part of your grandchildren's life.
And we're not gonna solve everything today, but I want to make this the first step in, uh, you know, starting a normal relationship together.
I honor the opportunity of being here today.
It's very touching what you said.
I love you unconditionally.
I always will, and I always did.
I'm getting older.
It'd be nice to know that we can have some kind of a relationship.
Yeah.
- Something - Yeah.
That keeps us together.
- All right.
- It takes two.
- I love you, son.
- You too.
This week undercover has caused me to really reflect on the important things in life.
And what really matters is my family.
They're the world to me, and I don't want to repeat the same mistakes my father made.
I can't wait to get home and spend some real quality time, just me and my family.
- I'm Beau, nice to meet you.
- Beau, how you doing? - Pleasure.
- Welcome to my world.
Announcer: His employees think he's on a reality show, competing to win a new job.
What do you do to keep your teeth so white? You know, I've used whitener.
- It burns a little bit.
- What the All right.
Announcer: By working undercover, this high-powered CEO will find out what it really takes to make his business run.
That's not right.
- We gotta go get some ladders.
- Okay.
You're not afraid to be up high, are you? I hope not, because you're gonna do it anyway.
Announcer: What will happen when the boss confronts his fear of heights? I don't wanna see you going [Laughs.]
I was terrified.
You're gonna have to go up one more step.
And don't look down.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
They've already started closing offices.
A lot of the people here are legitimately worried about their jobs.
And are you worried about that? Mm-hmm.
Announcer: And an unexpected reunion will change his life forever.
It'd be nice to know if we can have some kind of a relationship.
Announcer: Coming up next, on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x06 - Mood Media Original air date January 4, 2012 Announcer: Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mood Media provides in-store media to more than 590,000 locations throughout 48 countries.
With $1/2 billion in annual revenue, this media mogul plays more songs a day than all of the largest radio stations combined.
Overseeing the 2,500 employees across the globe is one man.
My name is Lorne Abony.
I'm the CEO and chairman of Mood Media.
Mood Media is one of those companies that you've invariably experienced without knowing that you've experienced us.
When you walk into a store, you're hearing music.
We provide the music in-store.
We play over 140 million songs a day.
You'll sometimes see signs, digital displays, and even closed-circuit security systems, and those things are provided by us.
Mood Media was founded 75 years ago, originally as a business called Muzak.
[Soft music plays.]
Muzak was a great American brand, but today, it doesn't have the right connotation for our current business.
We've moved a long way from providing elevator music, and we actually no longer provide music in elevators.
Mood Media is basically in every retail experience that you come across.
Our customers are restaurants, hotels, stores, gyms, shopping malls.
We are about creating a 360-degree experience for our customers.
Music in-store, video in-store helps people stay longer, be more comfortable, and buy more.
I grew up in Toronto, Canada.
I'm an only child.
We had very, very little money growing up.
My parents got divorced when I was very young.
My mother sacrificed everything for me.
We lived in government subsidized housing.
She was, uh she, uh she brought me up by herself.
My dad wasn't involved in a great part of my life.
I remember waiting for my dad to come to pick me up on visits, or other times that he was supposed to be there, and he just didn't come.
He didn't come to any of my graduations, and that was a very painful experience for me, and so the decision to not have him part of my life today is really a decision to ensure that I don't feel that way anymore.
I definitely think that my childhood impacted the kind of person I've become.
When I was younger, I probably got a lot of my sense of self-worth from my academic accomplishments.
I have two law degrees, and I have a MBA from Columbia Business School.
Growing up with financial hardship had been a great benefit for me as a CEO.
I treat money with the seriousness with which it deserves.
[Grunting.]
I'm extremely competitive in everything I do.
Myself and my tennis partner are ranked second in the U.
S.
in the men's over 40.
We will be ranked first soon.
[Grunts.]
Well, everyone, as you know, I'm going undercover.
I'm just generally nervous.
And, you know, do you have any suggestions? Well, if you're gonna go out with one of my technicians, please don't fall off a ladder.
[Laughter.]
I've always been an entrepreneur, and always worked for myself.
I became involved in this business because I saw a great opportunity.
When I started as CEO four years ago, we were doing about $2 million in revenue.
We had less than ten employees.
Today, we are close to $500 million in revenue.
We have 2,500 employees, and we're really transforming the retail landscape in America.
It's hot and itchy, all right.
As a CEO, I'm good with numbers.
My background's in finance, and I'm very comfortable making decisions around numbers.
I'm very excited to go undercover because I'm gonna have a firsthand opportunity to meet some of the people that I actually only know through spreadsheets and financial models.
Holy cow.
I have never put together any of our technologies.
I have never been on any installs.
I'm hoping to learn what they need to make this an even greater company.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Beau Sinnott, a failed nightclub owner looking for a chance to start a new life.
Throughout my undercover journey, my employees will be tricked into thinking they're on a hosted reality show in which they'll work alongside Beau, and then decide whether he deserves to win his dream job at Mood Media.
I've got Leila here to my left.
And Leila is a dispatcher here at Mood Media.
The woman pretending to be the host of the fake show will keep asking questions on whether Beau deserves his dream job.
So my employees will have no idea that this is secretly Undercover Boss.
I spend a lot of time traveling.
I have offices in 48 different countries.
I have a wonderful wife and two amazing children.
Hi, honey.
What do you think? [Gasps.]
He has a slight resemblance to daddy.
Does daddy look funny? I'm not always home, but, you know, my boys will never have to worry about money like I did.
Today, I'm in Austin, Texas, at the DMX offices.
At Mood Media, we've grown by acquisition, and DMX is a company that we recently acquired.
DMX does a lot of the same work as Mood Media does.
DMX has a great background music and messaging business.
I'm here to see Leila.
She'll be on your right hand side.
Thank you so much.
The most important thing in running a business is how you treat the customer.
So today, I'm going to be working in dispatch.
Dispatch handles any problems that arise with existing customers.
Problems can range from a malfunctioning sound system at a restaurant to a flickering video monitor at a retail location.
I think this will be a great opportunity to see how the customers are treated and how they're serviced, because it's the most important thing that we can do.
- Hi, Leila.
- Hi.
Hi, I'm Beau.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Pleasure.
Take a seat.
Oh, you have beautiful teeth.
- Oh, thanks.
- Oh, my.
Beautiful teeth.
Hello.
- Thanks.
- Your name is Beau? It is.
When Leila commented on my teeth, I was a little self-conscious.
What do you do to keep your teeth so white? Well, I, I, uh you know, I've used whitener before.
How does that work? Does it make it, like, sensitive? - It burns a little bit.
- What the I'm not tryin' to burn my mouth, so we're not gonna do that.
[Laughs.]
Beau's got the look, he's got the attitude.
Yeah, Beau's pretty much a hipster.
This is it.
Basically, we get service calls from customer service.
We find a technician that's qualified, we send him out to the location.
He fixes the problem, everyone's good.
This is the person that called in and said "this is my issue.
" It says the music is skipping.
I'm gonna pull up the ZIP code.
This are all a nice little list of technicians that are in this area.
This technician his name is Harold.
I'm gonna call Harold, and I'm gonna give you a headset so you can kind of listen in and hear me talk to him.
Okay, I will listen.
[Phone rings.]
I can hear perfect.
Hello, Harold speaking.
[Squealing.]
Harold! What are you doing? [Laughs.]
What you got going on? So I have a question.
I want to see if you have time on your schedule tomorrow to check out an Ann Taylor for me.
Yeah, yeah.
Don't you worry.
- We'll get it taken care of.
- Perfect.
I thought Leila had a delightful disposition.
She seems to make work fun.
Since we merged with Mood Media, we're beyond huge.
So this is just one of the many.
Like bringing in the ones from Mood Media and from Yeah.
So now that we have this saved, I now have to create it into a PDF file to be sent to the tech.
Now I'm going to get into the complicated stuff.
That wasn't the complicated stuff? No.
[Laughs.]
I'm going to have you sit in the hot seat.
The thought that was going through my mind is, "there is no chance of knowing" "all of those things so quickly.
" I want you to copy the ZIP code from that page and enter.
Now, we're going to put the E.
T.
A.
in there.
- So the E.
T.
A.
is - Tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
I'm gonna scoot along and get you to call the client.
Okay.
Oh, I'm nervous like a mother [Phone ringing.]
I'm nervous too.
[On phone.]
Hi, this is Whitney.
Hi, Whitney.
It's Beau calling from DMX about your service issue.
How are you? - Good.
- Good.
I'm just calling to let you know that a tech will be out to service uh, provide you the service tomorrow.
Okay, sounds good.
And, uh, he will call you prior to, uh - to arriving.
- Perfect.
- Okay? - All right, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
Bam! That's right! - So we're gonna do one more.
- Okay.
So far, what I'm seeing is that DMX is not only standing up to Mood Media's standards Paging is down.
It's at the Saks.
It's setting a great example for the rest of the company.
Yeah, put it down for tomorrow.
- Great.
Thanks, Steve.
- Thanks, Steve.
[Squealing.]
Good job.
Good.
Okay, let's eat.
I'm hungry.
Okay, perfect.
- So you used to own a club? - I did.
Well, there's a lot of different areas at DMX that would probably suit you.
You know, I thought I was coming to Mood Media, and then, you know, you keep talking about DMX.
- The merger? - Yeah.
Well, Mood Media actually acquired DMX not too long ago, so we're now one big family.
And when they actually brought us in for the announcement, a lot of the veterans that had been here for years were like, "are you kidding me?" "This is, like, our biggest rival," - "and we're now a family?" - Right, wow.
How is this gonna work? They've already started closing offices.
A lot of the people here are legitimately worried about their jobs.
When you look at a spreadsheet of bringing two businesses together, you look at employee 1, 2, 3, and it's different to look into their eyes and see that her or her colleagues are concerned about their job.
And are you worried about that? Mm-hmm.
This is where I've forged my home.
My boyfriend and I just leased a home together.
But when that lease is up, I'm probably gonna be moving to pursue my career for school.
So tell me about school.
I've always wanted to be a vet.
I have four dogs, so my dogs are my kids.
I just have to worry about my finances.
Going to college is expensive.
And that's what I'm worried about.
All right, well, I don't even see any more chicken in here.
So you ready to go? Let's get back to work.
I learned today that DMX really understands customer care.
Hopefully, it seems a little easier now that you're doing it.
Leila not only did that job very well I admire that she wants to put herself through school.
I can really respect that.
We're gonna let them know that we have a tech that's scheduled for tomorrow.
Okay.
Announcer: Coming up, the boss hears what an installer really thinks of his company.
They'll expect us to put a speaker like this - into a poured concrete ceiling.
- Right.
And we're like, you know, come on.
Announcer: And later, Lorne confronts his past.
I love you unconditionally.
Always will.
Today, I'm in Long Island, New York, at Moe's Southwest Grill, working with an installer.
At this location, we're going to be installing Mood Media's state-of-the-art digital sound system.
The right sound enhances the customers' experience and keeps the customers coming back, so it is extremely important that we get this right.
I am nervous, because I have no experience installing sound systems, so this is as far out of my comfort zone as I could possibly be.
- Hi, John.
- Hey.
I'm Beau.
Nice to meet you.
Hey, Beau.
Nice to meet you too.
- How are you? - Good, good.
- Good.
- I understand, uh, I'm gonna give you a little bit of job training.
Go over, you know, the sound system installation.
Basically, what we got here, they're gonna get a total of seven speakers, and the first thing we want to do, basically, is, we have our standard 2x2-foot tile.
I know that our speaker diameter is 8 inches, so we're gonna set this guy up for 4.
All right, so why don't you go right in, spin it around.
Okay.
Yeah, there you go.
Keep that centered.
You're making a nice mark.
That's pretty good right there.
Start on your line.
I generally like to keep, like, maybe a little bit on the outside of the line.
Just relax.
Take your time.
You got it.
I'm just gonna finish prepping this.
I usually sit in a nice, comfortable board chair.
I usually am typing emails, looking at financial models or presentations, and certainly not with a knife.
All right, you're getting to the end.
Good.
And let that drop right in.
Looks like we're a little small on that.
- Yeah.
- Oops.
Obviously, it's not right on.
I'm just gonna round it out a little.
Okay.
Get those edges.
Here's one of our speakers.
This should, hopefully, go right in, which it does.
That's all in.
Let's put back our grill.
So what part of the country are you from, Beau? I'm I'm originally from Detroit.
Where are y are you from here originally? - Yes.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
Just push that in.
Right, a little bit - There we go.
- Look at that.
See if you can hold it on the underside, like this.
So do you have family too? - Yes.
- Yeah? Yeah, I've got three wonderful children.
Oh, wow.
How old? - Um, 25-year-old - Wow.
And a 23-year-old.
She's getting married next month.
- Oh, congratulations.
- And a 13-year-old.
What we want to do, we have the feed line that I ran for it.
- Just carefully help me lift.
- Yeah.
Hoo! [Sighs.]
John, is your daughter going on a honeymoon? Yeah, I been saving for about three months now.
She asked if I could be the one to help you know, she wants to go to Hawaii, so - How exciting.
- Yeah, and at least that'll be one less thing she'll have to worry about.
John is a family man.
He loves his children.
Give it, like, a little twist.
Even though they're grown, you can see how much he still wants to take care of them, and I really respect that.
All right, so we're ready for the next one.
I guess, uh, pretty much, you can start.
I'll be up ahead, doing another one.
All right.
All right.
Oops.
Gonna screw these in.
Looks like we're a little small on that.
Gonna go with a fresh one here.
I think Beau was kind of surprised over the job tasks that we were doing.
The installation work is not easy.
He was a little bit slow, and you gotta do what's needed and necessary to get the job done.
Looking at a technical opportunity here, you might be looking into, like, a managerial position.
[Laughs.]
Yeah, I mean, there's um, yeah.
It's good to know, like yeah, watch your line.
Um, like, one of my biggest complaints through the years have been, like, how certain jobs weren't visited by the people that, you know, sell them.
And they won't know if it's, like, push-up tile, or if it's sheet rock, or sometimes it could be poured concrete, and, you know, we'll go into certain situations where they'll expect us to put a speaker like this - into a poured concrete ceiling.
- Right.
And we're like, you know, "come on.
" You know, nobody obviously didn't look at the job - or scope it out, so - Right.
You know, if you could straighten that up, you know, that would be, like, one of the best things.
If I end up in management, I'll definitely Yeah.
It was clear to me today, working with John, that there's not perfect communication between the salespeople and our tech force, and when I get back to the office, that's something that I will address immediately.
Okay, let's go on to the next.
This process has been much more eye-opening for me than I actually thought it was going to be.
I know our company's successful, but after working with Leila and John, I'm realizing that I've been so focused on the bottom line that I haven't realized the problems our employees face that make their jobs more difficult.
These people give their heart and soul to Mood Media on a daily basis, and we need to do a better job supporting them.
I'm here at the Planet Fitness in Atlanta, Georgia, and I will be working with one of our installers to do a closed-circuit security system install.
My first install job with John was putting in one of the most traditional products.
However, we install a lot more than just background music systems.
Digital signage products and closed-circuit security systems represent an opportunity to grow our business well beyond just music, and so this is you know, this is something I'm very excited to see.
- Eileen? - Yeah, hi.
Hi, I'm here for the tech job.
I'm Beau.
- Hi.
Hey, Beau.
- Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
What we're doing is, we're installing a CCTV system.
You see right up there? - Camera? - That's a camera, okay.
First thing we gotta do is, we gotta go get some ladders.
- Okay.
- You're not afraid to be up high, are you? I hope not, because you're gonna do it anyways, okay? [Laughs.]
I'm a little afraid of heights, but Okay, well, don't worry about it.
- All right.
Okay.
- Just don't look down, and you'll be fine.
I actually couldn't really focus on anything she was saying.
I was terrified by the height of the ceilings All right.
And by the height of the ladders.
You get up there.
- All right, I - Go ahead.
Okay, and the ladder looks safe to you? You're not used to ladders, huh? Not really.
Not Okay, don't ever try and reach what's not safe, 'cause I don't want to see you going [Laughs.]
Yeah, I don't really want to see me doing that either.
And I don't want to dial 911 either, so okay? - Go get - All right, are you holding - the ladder, or? - No.
- No? - You're on your own.
- Yeah, wait, what? - You can do it.
- All right.
- All right? - Yeah.
- Get on up there.
I'm gonna push you the wire.
Go ahead.
You're okay.
Don't look down.
You're all right.
Just stay center of the ladder.
You're gonna be all right.
All right? I have never seen anybody react to having to step up on a ladder the way Beau does.
You're gonna have to go up one more step.
And don't look down.
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Announcer: Lorne Abony, the CEO of Mood Media, is a boss undercover in his own company.
Hi, I'm here for the tech job.
- I'm Beau.
- Hi.
Announcer: His employees think he's a former nightclub owner participating in a hosted reality show, competing to win a new job.
You're gonna have to go a little higher.
Announcer: But right now, he might be in over his head.
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
This seems a little wobbly.
Eileen? This seem safe to you? This ladder's set? Everything's fine? I still think it is.
I don't ever go on a ladder, and I was very concerned that I was going to fall off.
Coming at ya.
I need you to get that wire.
- Okay.
- Pull it some.
A lot of the times, we don't have the luxury of having anybody else helping us, just so you know that.
I really can't even imagine doing this at all, let alone by myself.
[Laughs.]
All right, we're gonna put a camera up.
Ah, you'll be running up this thing soon.
- Yeah.
- So what did you do before you didn't do whatever you're not doing? Oh, yeah, well, I had a nightclub that I owned, so - Really? - Yeah, in Detroit.
And you never had to go change a lightbulb, or anything? - No, I and not - No? I'm a little afraid of heights, actually, - to be honest.
- Oh, you're doing fine.
- You're doing fine.
- All right.
I'll take the camera.
And this baby's gonna come right through here.
So we're stripping the wire back.
All right, which one we using for power? Oh, um, uh, plus is black? No.
Have you never opened the hood of your car? Normally, red is positive.
All right, can you do me a positive and a negative? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- Give me the other gizmo.
So do you have any questions? I mean, one of the reasons I wanted to get, you know, a job at Mood is retirement, and security for my family, and kind of for the long term.
- Have you been able to? - I've been able to sock some into the 401K, but you know, that big crash was, like, ugly.
- Right.
- So I stopped contributing.
- Right.
- Let's see what you did.
Okay.
All right.
How does that look? - Looks good.
- Yeah? Yeah.
See, I could train you.
I could get you I could get you there.
You're so positive.
- I think [laughs.]
- You're so positive.
- Do we have picture? - Wow, we do, yeah.
- Oh, my gosh.
Okay.
- Perfect.
- There's our club.
- Wow.
And we're gonna bring it down a little bit.
That's fantastic.
Okay, so now Hang onto that, 'cause we don't want to lose it.
Okay, yeah.
I'm sorry.
- Stuck in my ladder.
- Yeah.
Come on down.
I thought, coming in, that I was not very good at these types of jobs.
I'm now convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am absolutely terrible.
We're gonna go outside, we're gonna get some fresh air.
Okay, great.
I'm disgusted with myself, is the honest truth.
- So you got a wife.
- I do, yeah.
And what about you with family? - I've got a partner.
- You have a partner, right.
For, like, close to 30 years, and we've got her nephews, and they were in a home that wasn't just wasn't good, you know, and instead of them going into foster care, they asked if a family member could take them, and Karen and I, you know, it was like, "yeah.
" - Good for you.
- Yeah.
Good for you.
Yeah, kids are wonderful.
They are.
They're fun.
We consider 'em our guys.
We've tried to do as much as we possibly could for 'em.
- Right.
- Yeah.
I thought, from every perspective, Eileen was a wonderful individual.
She has been with her partner for 30 years.
She brings up four children.
You know, today was very difficult.
- We're not done yet.
- Yeah, we're not done.
Don't be like, "it's over" yet.
- I'm just having a cigarette.
- You're right.
You're right.
[Laughs.]
Right.
The way Eileen works hard to support her family reminds me of how hard my mother worked as a single parent.
All right, come on.
I apologize.
I'm really trying.
Okay, quit saying you're sorry.
She's just the type of person you just want to help.
Today, I'm at our regional office in Atlanta, and I'll be working as a rack fabricator.
Part of the reason we've been so successful is because we're very hands-on with what we do, from installing and repairing our systems to manufacturing our own equipment.
A rack fabricator assembles all of our equipment from scratch before it's shipped out to our customers.
- Hi, I'm here for Devin.
- Hey, how you doing? I'm Devin.
Hey, Devin, I'm Beau.
Nice to meet you.
Beau, how are you? Welcome to my world.
- [Laughs.]
Oh, thank you.
- Um What I do, I build racks all day.
Okay.
Hopefully, you like my job, 'cause I love my job.
- Great.
- So you know much about racks, - and - I really don't.
Really don't? That's that's cool.
No, I don't know much about that.
When Beau walked in, I could see that he was really nervous, so you know, I tried to take it easy on him.
By the end of the day, you'll be a expert, trust me.
Okay, great.
This is what we call a rack, and what it does is either play music, video, whatever kinda the customer wants.
As you see, we wire them all up from scratch.
We make every single wire.
Right now, I'm gonna start you out on actually making RCA wires.
Take one RCA you know a standard, regular RCA.
So you're gonna use this as a wire stripper.
- You could take my seat.
- Okay, thank you very much.
Yeah, please.
- Sit down, be here for awhile.
- Okay.
So you get a wire like this.
Make sure that this sleeve is in the little ring.
- Right.
- And just kinda - and the tip out that distance.
- Right.
Just bite all the way down.
You're not gonna break it.
Pull this off? - There you go.
All right? - Okay, good.
So you'll always have three wires.
This is where, basically, your sound goes through.
Go ahead and tie the ground and your common together.
Okay.
These racks, when they ship out to the customer, they have to be in tip-top shape, because once they get there, it's plug-and-play.
A lot of detail.
Oh, yes.
Detail is the key to this.
Sometimes, my rack will show up two days before the opening of the hotel, and they have no room for us to make a mistake.
We have to solder it, make sure it stays on there tight.
Use your solder and tin them now.
Get your gun right on there.
We call that "tinning the wire".
I'd never used a soldering iron before.
I'd never actually seen anyone solder anything before, so I didn't want to burn him or me.
Hold it like a pencil.
That might help better.
Yeah, there you go.
And lay it on top of your ground.
Just lay it there.
Then you do the same with the top.
[Clears throat.]
Oops.
Well, that's not right.
Now, let me see.
Did you do it correct? Yes.
Would I let this out? No, I would not.
You see how you have your wires hanging out? That could cause a short.
If I didn't do this correctly, and it went out, got in your nightclub, you got got everybody in there, mixing.
One side goes out, and now, you've got customer leaving.
Imagine that phone call I would get the next morning.
That one wire could cost you millions of dollars.
Devin saw that his job was part of a much larger business, and he recognized that he was a very important piece of the puzzle, and I was I was just delighted.
[Metal grinding.]
There you go.
Now, we have to put the next unit in.
AM/FM radio, as you see right here.
So we pull out all the feet.
So do you live close to work? I live right ten minutes down the street, - with my older brother, so - Right.
My older brother gave me this opportunity - to come stay with him.
- Yeah? Had me in some tough situations, you know? I left home when I was 17.
I was doing good, and all of a sudden, really down on my luck.
Homeless, really Yeah, it was going all bad for me.
- So it's worked out since - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've - Getting back to? - Yeah, so And I'm trying to save up for a house.
That's one of my dreams, and hopefully, have my younger brother stay with me as well.
- Yeah.
- Same thing my older brother's doing for me, I want to do for him.
- Right.
- "Stay with me," "get on your feet, and we'll have you," and I'm trying my best to help him take care of his son, - and - Right.
Plus, my mother's getting older, and you know, why not? - Come stay with me as well.
- Right.
Good for you.
That's that's wonderful.
- That's the goal.
- And how about your dad? Uh, I kinda just reconnected with him.
- Yeah? - I stopped talking to him for about a good close to ten years.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, when I left college, that was kind of the last time I got in contact with him, and I've had that with my dad too.
I've, like - Yeah? - Gone a long time - not talking to him.
- Yeah.
With my parents being divorced, you know, it comes with a lot of anger.
- My parents are divorced too.
- Yeah, so and He had a lot of anger still built up, and you know, just one night, he was drinking real heavy, and just kinda went the wrong road, and I don't want to get too far into detail, but my uncle died, my grandma died within the same year - I'm sorry.
- That's when I value not to hold onto grudges, I mean, we're too prideful.
Devin has a similar set of life experiences to me.
I've had a strained relationship with my father.
That might be a man's biggest downfall, is our pride.
[Laughs.]
"I'm not gonna talk first.
He needs to talk first.
" - "It's his fault.
" - Wow, is that true.
Yeah, and at the end of the day, does it really matter? It I learned to let my pride go, but my father's gonna take a little bit more time.
- At least we're talking, so - I had the same thing.
- Really? - Years and years and years and years of, you know, not talking to my dad.
But you got over it, hopefully.
Well, I might just take your advice, and - You know - I think you should, man.
You don't want to wait till somebody has passed, and you be like, "I wish I could've said this," "got this off my chest.
" Yeah, I mean, life's short, man.
Life life is really short, and don't want to live with regrets.
You know? All right, well, yeah, thank you.
You know, I thought that his advice was very insightful, and he was very forthcoming with me, and he seemed to genuinely care.
There you go.
It was very impactful for me.
That's a good sign for a rack builder.
Now, it's time to ship your rack out.
Okay.
I was caught off guard that Devin had a similar relationship with his father and decided to make peace with his father.
Devin has a very compelling point, that life is really short, and there really is no reason to hold grudges, but I will probably always be mad for what I can't really understand, which is, you know, not showing your son that you love them, and not being there for some of the most important things in my entire life.
I don't think I'll, you know, ever be over that.
But this experience is making me realize I need to open my heart and mind a little more.
Announcer: How will the employees react when they find out Beau is really the boss? I'm Lorne Abony.
I'm the CEO and chairman of Mood Media.
Announcer: And how will Lorne react when he sees his father for the first time in more than a decade? You know, I've had a chance to think about things, and I only have one dad.
Say good-bye to Beau.
This has been one of the best experiences of my life.
I've learned that my job is not more important than any of the other and I want to have a chance to give back to them, because they have given so much to make this such a great company.
My employees have been summoned to an office in New York City.
They think they're here to judge Beau's performance.
What the heck? Oh, my God, Beau.
How are ya? [Laughs.]
How are you? You're looking good today.
You clean up nice.
[Clears throat.]
So how'd Beau do? [Laughs.]
Uh, you did great [Laughs.]
You are Beau! What do you mean, "how is Beau?" So do you know who I am? No.
[Laughs.]
- You don't? [Laughs.]
- No.
[Laughs.]
I'm not really Beau.
I'm Lorne Abony.
I'm the CEO and chairman of Mood Media.
[Chuckles.]
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Wow.
- Hello.
[Laughs.]
- How you doing? Wow, it's a pleasure, a pleasure.
An honor, an honor.
- Pleasure to meet you too.
- Wow.
Uh, hi.
- Hi.
- [Laughs.]
Hi.
Leila, you were incredibly gracious with our customers and with our technicians.
I want to see if you have time to check out an Ann Taylor for me.
[On phone.]
Yeah, yeah.
We'll get it taken care of.
Perfect.
You were fantastic.
- Thank you.
- So it was great.
You know, I listened to you, and you said that you were concerned about your job since Mood Media merged with your company.
[Chuckles.]
You're so customer-focused and so polite on the phone, and I don't want to lose the best employees, so I want you to know that you will have a job - as long as you want one.
- [Laughs.]
Oh, my God.
And you shared with me just how much you love animals.
I too love animals.
I have two German Shepherd dogs - Oh! - That I love.
So what I would like to do is make a donation in your name - of $5,000 - Oh, my God.
To an animal charity for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Wow.
Okay.
Thank you.
I want to do something else.
You know, you're trying to figure out whether you should go to school.
- I want to give you $15,000 - Oh, my God.
For you to further your education.
[Sighs.]
I don't know what to think right now.
Thank you for absolutely everything, and being just awesome.
Thank you.
[Sighs.]
Thank you.
It's really overwhelming, 'cause I've never had anybody do something like that for me, and I don't know, this is just the biggest blessing I never thought I could ever have.
Oh, my God.
This is definitely, definitely, definitely gonna be the start of my life.
John, let me tell you, I was touched by the integrity of your character.
I was blown away.
It's an honor to have people like you working at Mood Media.
- Wow.
- You mentioned to me that, you know, sometimes, our salespeople will sell a job, and they won't have, you know, even attended at the job - Yeah.
- Then the techs, you know, don't have the right tools, et cetera, and I listened to that, and I would like to offer you a job as a supervising engineer, to make sure that we don't sell a job that isn't completely spec'd out, and because, by bringing this to our attention, you're going to save us a lot of money, I want to make your life a little bit easier.
You told me about saving up for your daughter's honeymoon.
John, I want to give you $40,000 to use however you wish.
Extremely generous.
Extremely generous.
I this this is amazing.
[Laughs.]
And I would love to offer you, you know, an invitation to her wedding.
I mean I was going to ask you if I could get invited to your daughter's wedding, but I thought that that might be too presumptuous.
That is just one of the most un incredible gestures of generosity that I've ever received from anybody.
It's like hitting the lottery, or something.
I I this is just gonna it's gonna help my life out tremendously, and, um I don't know if you're I just I'm just so grateful.
I want the world to know about Mood Media, 'cause Mood Media rocks.
[Laughs.]
Eileen, it doesn't really get much better than you.
I mean, you've been at Mood Media for 25 years.
You have been with your partner for 27 years.
You have taken on four children.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for you.
You're gonna make me cry.
[Laughing.]
This is crazy.
Okay, go ahead.
Don't let me stop you.
No, I'm loving this.
Go ahead.
I would like to do a couple things that I hope will make a difference in your life.
I have two children of my own, and I know just how hard it is to bring up children.
And I would like to give you $10,000 to be used however you wish - towards your children.
- Wow.
Well, it'll definitely help put a dent in some of the extra expenditures we've incurred through the years.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
You told me that your 401K had suffered pretty significantly.
And so I would like to give you $25,000 so that you can restart the 401K and get back on the right track.
I appreciate it, Lorne.
I really do.
Wow.
[Sighs.]
This is so much to take in.
[Laughs.]
This is a lot for me.
Jeez! - And finally - There can't be any more.
You told me about your partner.
The first thing I thought about is whether or not your partner had benefits.
- Mm-hmm.
- Effective today Mm-hmm.
Mood Media will always provide same-sex partner benefits.
It's approximately a $200,000 a year cost to us.
- Wow.
- But it's something that I think is essential.
I know there are probably a lot of people that'd be grateful.
Grateful.
Thank you so much, Lorne.
[Laughs.]
I'm so happy.
I'm just so happy.
I'm humbled by humbled by you, as a person.
- Mmm.
- So - We have to hug again.
- Gotta hug.
Yay.
I'm just overwhelmed.
I'm thrilled.
The money definitely makes things a lot easier for us.
And having Lorne to look into my 401K so that I can retire.
Plus, he's changed a policy Mood Media had about domestic partner benefits.
I'm just still so in shock.
Devin, I want to tell you I loved working with you.
I loved you working with me.
It was fun.
Your attention to detail, I was just so impressed with.
Thank you.
And you actually shocked me when you said that you had a strained relationship with your father.
I've gone years without speaking to my father.
So when you told me that you made up with your father, it meant a lot to me, and I'm considering getting back in touch with my father.
Good.
Glad to hear that.
You know, family means everything to me, and you're helping taking care of your brother's son, and that your mother lives with you, and that all you wish for in life is, you know, health and well-being of your family.
Right.
So I would like to give you $30,000 to use however you see fit for you and your family.
Are you serious? [Laughs.]
- I'm 100% serious.
- Oh, wow.
Thank you.
[Laughs.]
Oh, my goodness.
I mean, that's gonna help out so much.
My mother's gonna be happy.
Take care of her.
[Laughs.]
To take care of her.
Oh, wow.
Thank you so much again.
- My pleasure.
- Awesome.
"Awesome" is the only word I can use.
You made a lot of people's lives different.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
Thank you so much.
What Lorne is doing for me is more than he could ever imagine.
Lorne's not only giving me money, but he's giving me me and my family a future to look forward to and a stronger bond.
This has been a very exhausting week undercover, but there's one thing I still have left to do.
This process has caused me to think carefully about myself and think carefully about what matters.
Thank you.
I don't think that harboring resentment helps anyone, and I only have one dad.
Hi, dad.
- Hi, buddy.
- Thanks for coming.
It's my pleasure.
We've had some tough times.
There were times as a kid that I didn't feel, you know, quite as loved as I would have wanted to feel.
But, I, um you know, I've had a chance to think about things in a different way, and I only have one dad.
And I you know, I want you to be part of my life.
I want you to be part of your grandchildren's life.
And we're not gonna solve everything today, but I want to make this the first step in, uh, you know, starting a normal relationship together.
I honor the opportunity of being here today.
It's very touching what you said.
I love you unconditionally.
I always will, and I always did.
I'm getting older.
It'd be nice to know that we can have some kind of a relationship.
Yeah.
- Something - Yeah.
That keeps us together.
- All right.
- It takes two.
- I love you, son.
- You too.
This week undercover has caused me to really reflect on the important things in life.
And what really matters is my family.
They're the world to me, and I don't want to repeat the same mistakes my father made.
I can't wait to get home and spend some real quality time, just me and my family.