S05.E17: Montiel

[Whimsy]

Quote

 A women's athleisure company found initial success building a following online, but the owner's conservative aesthetic is starting to lose popularity, and she refuses to take any risks, despite suffering sales. 

I had to put that in quotes because it appears "athleisure" is not a word and the comma's are driving me crazy so I wanted to separate myself from it.  ;)

[sigmarick]

I've watched every episode of the Profit and this was the absolute worst waste of an hour. The same crappy clothing or food concept with the same neurotic anxiety-ridden yahoo owners. Marcus is just mailing it in now.  

[Amarsir]

Oh, the boss doesn't want to take any of Marcus's suggestions? That's new.

Actually this was worse because he wants her as a designer, which means he can't even try to go around her. I mean I guess instead of yelling about it she just, y'know, didn't do anything. So that's kind of different. But otherwise nothing happened.

I did however enjoy the irony of Marcus ending the show saying that she wasted his time. I think I can relate, Marcus.

[Inspector Bucket]

That was a weird episode. And I have found the eps this season so fun!

Side Note: Susana Monaco is a terrible reality tv character. Stone-faced. Stiff. Maybe she turns off when cameras are on and she is actually a dynamic weirdo. 

Main Note: when your protagonist structures her day so that she has minimal contact with TWO EMPLOYEES, maybe that person will freak out gloriously when on your tv show. Or maybe that person will be a total bore. We got total bore.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Inspector Bucket

[Showthyme]

The clothes were boring, she was boring, the show was boring.

[cooksdelight]

That’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back. Fuck you, Marcus!

[BusyOctober]

What an entitled brat.  I can buy comfortable, affordable leggings and athletic bras ANYWHERE; Walmart, Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, Marshalls & my personal favorite- Amazon...even Walgreens and CVS sells them!  Your stuff is not anything special.  Besides all the lower end price point stores, there are a ton of high end 'athleisure wear' out there already for hard core customers like Lulu Lemon &  Athleta.  Maybe she can get a job at BRKN Heart...that brand is as joyless and bland as Ms Montiel.

[tobeannounced]

Boy, Marcus was a grumpy pumpkin last night. I don't think I've ever heard him drop so many F bombs. He just seems so emotional and unprofessional. I guess he's got enough money that it doesn't make any difference. I'm probably in the minority here, but I felt like he had it out for this woman from the start. Why any business owner who isn't desperate would go on this show to be made a fool of, I have no idea. Hardly anyone is coming out looking good this season. 

And because it can't be said enough:  Marcus, I know you said you know women's apparel, but I can't take anything you say about fashion seriously when you're wearing those ridiculous broken heart sweaters.

[Ray Adverb]

Haven't seen it yet, so all I can say right now is "Not another clothing company!"

[Gregg247]

This episode was sad, because I think Maggie, the owner, had the best of intentions, and Marcus definitely wanted things to work, but they just couldn't get the deal done.  Maggie was such an uptight person; she didn't want to hear anything bad about anything.  All criticism was off-limits, according to her.  Her sales were dropping, she knew she was in trouble (that's why she called Marcus), but the very idea that the problem was her designs was a completely foreign concept to her.  She didn't want to listen to anybody!

I think Maggie may have been even tougher to work with than the episode showed.  The scenes with Julie ("the Partner"), Susana Monacco, and the lady from Courage B who now runs Marcus' clothing lines indicated that they'd all absolutely HAD IT with Maggie.  Notice the sour expressions and weary body postures in scenes with her.  I think they spent a LOT more time with her than Marcus did.

Maggie didn't even like expanding the line into non-yoga activities like bike riding and jogging.  Why yoga only?  Plus, she didn't want to put a company logo on clothes she was making for that specific company?!?!  Now that I think about it, Maggie may be the most narrowly focused business owner I've ever seen.

I'm surprised Marcus didn't bring Maggie's dad back into the picture to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her.  I'm sure Marcus would have loved to have "directed" this touching moment!

EDIT: I think Marcus' continued use of the F word in a business setting is inappropriate and unprofessional.  His employees/partners/coworkers don't need to put up with that.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Gregg247

[atlantaloves]

Not only was she a boring brat, she was a bitch.  It is always a mistake not to listen to Marcus. God, what a lousy show this has become.

[toodles]

5 hours ago, Midnight Sun said:

Not only sweaters, but he was wearing a jacket with that stupid thing on it. For the love of all that is holy, please make it STOP!

I intended to quit this show, yet here I am. Gawd, I hate myself.

You and me both

[Ray Adverb]

I didn't think it was too bad.  It was kind of boring so I disengaged from it.  I think that was mainly because it was yet another clothing brand.  I don't get how so many people can make so many identical products and somehow turn a profit.  Her stuff reminds me of some single color T-shirts I bought for $3 a piece at an arts and crafts store in 2005. 

 

I thought Maggie seemed like a nice lady, but very stubborn.  I am glad Marcus didn't pull off any shenanigans to intentionally push her buttons, like a focus group full of random attention hungry yahoos off the street.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Ray Adverb

[ae2]

1 hour ago, Ray Adverb said:

I thought Maggie seemed like a nice lady, but very stubborn.  I am glad Marcus didn't pull off any shenanigans to intentionally push her buttons, like a focus group full of random attention hungry yahoos off the street.

I thought he tried with the cycling class, where they were clearly coached to call out specific issues with the clothing. Maggie was simply more imperturbable than diaper guy. 

If Mark Cuban were starring in the Profit (hey, there's an idea...) he would have called Maggie out as a gold-digger. 

[TVbitch]

Marcus: Maggie, I have wasted my time and cannot be part of this because you are unwilling to try anything different, and I am all about amazing revolutionary innovative designs  ...like putting a clip art broken-heart patch on basic solid-color sweaters.  

[Ray Adverb]

I want to go visit that museum of failure.  That looks like a fun place.

Edited July 28, 2018 by Ray Adverb
Misspelled "museum" the first time.

[cooksdelight]

Where is the woman who won that other show he had, supposed to be his assistant? I’ve never seen her again.

[ae2]

10 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

Where is the woman who won that other show he had, supposed to be his assistant? I’ve never seen her again.

She's been on several times this season, although they have not made a big deal out of her appearance on the other show. (Which I think is the right decision.) In this episode I believe she was sitting next to Marcus during a meeting and got in a couple of lines. That's usually the extent of her involvement so far. We have seen her run a few meetings. She may have been the one during the diaper bag episode that showed him the new branding but I can't remember for sure.

[tobeannounced]

I did a little poking around about the broken heart logo. I thought someone had said previously that it was Marcus' wife's design, but apparently it's Susana Monaco. I wonder why they didn't mention that when she was so prominently featured in this show. Marcus tweeted something about the line in June, #unbreakable, but a Google search of "Susana Monaco unbreakable" and "broken heart" doesn't bring up anything where you can buy this stuff. Anyway, I wonder if Montiel wanted no part of that? Might be more than meets the eye about the conflict between the two.

[Whimsy]

5 hours ago, ae2 said:

She's been on several times this season, although they have not made a big deal out of her appearance on the other show. (Which I think is the right decision.) In this episode I believe she was sitting next to Marcus during a meeting and got in a couple of lines. That's usually the extent of her involvement so far. We have seen her run a few meetings. She may have been the one during the diaper bag episode that showed him the new branding but I can't remember for sure.

I think she's working and doing the job she "won" (I didn't watch that show, so not sure) but just isn't featured on this show. 

[mcgett]

8 hours ago, tobeannounced said:

I did a little poking around about the broken heart logo. I thought someone had said previously that it was Marcus' wife's design, but apparently it's Susana Monaco. I wonder why they didn't mention that when she was so prominently featured in this show. Marcus tweeted something about the line in June, #unbreakable, but a Google search of "Susana Monaco unbreakable" and "broken heart" doesn't bring up anything where you can buy this stuff. Anyway, I wonder if Montiel wanted no part of that? Might be more than meets the eye about the conflict between the two.

Well they did say that Susana Monaco needed a lot of help with her online sales.   There is a website where you can buy (not sure why anyone would) from the line: https://brknheart.com/  The site is really not intuitive, there is a cart summary "0 $0.00" that shows in the upper right, but the main page is devoid of anything that makes it look like it is a retail site.   The upper left had a three bars menu symbol which brings up a side panel with Women, Men and Marcus Lemonis Limited Edition selection.   The whole things needs a serious overhaul.

Edited July 27, 2018 by mcgett

[LuvMyShows]

I generally enjoy this show, and don't find more than 2 or 3 things to snark about.  But this show had enough that I ended up taking notes (I'm leaving out the comments that people here have already covered):

• I don't believe that Maggie called Marcus, even though Marcus asked Maggie why she called him.  Her business was doing well, and in her own explanation, she did not indicate that anything was in trouble, in need of fixing, etc...I think she said something like the business needed to grow.  I believe this was a case of Marcus looking for synergy and pawning it off as a legit episode.
• When Marcus was explaining his proposed deal, he spoke 95% of the time to Maggie's dad, not Maggie.
• I did not understand the whole point of the song lyrics thing...what were they supposed to be used for? And I'm with Maggie...none of those lyrics stood out at all.  Then when Marcus tried to find out what musician Maggie liked and she couldn't come up with any, and she finally did state that she loves Dua Lupa's lyrics, there was no exploration of that.
• Why didn't Marcus check in with Maggie and Julie sooner in advance of the Flywheel presentation?  By the time he saw the products, they were seriously running out of time.  It's almost like he wanted her to fail in the presentation, by having not enough stuff that would appeal to them, so that he could be right.
• And for that Flywheel line, Maggie wasn't working on it by herself; she was working with "The Partner", Julie Reed (I thought it said Julie on the video, but on the Internet, it says her name is Julianna).  Julie specifically said they had played it safe, and since she should know Marcus' desires better than anyone, I can't fault only Maggie here.
• What on earth was the point with the Maggie-Susanna collaboration?  Were they going to develop a new line that reflects a combo of both women, and then sell it at both stores?  It sounds like they have VERY different clientele...why would one set of customers want to buy clothing that is heavily influenced by some completely other design aesthetic?
• Just because Maggie is good at running her own website, doesn't mean that she should also be running Susanna's.
• When they actually gave the Flywheel presentation, Marcus still apparently hadn't checked Maggie's proposed clothing line, because he said, "I just hope she's taking it far enough."
• During the presentation to Flywheel, Maggie's first explanation about the wording she came up with is that she came up with words that "represent myself", then she added that they also represent other people.  WTF?  She's developing clothing for Flywheel customers...those should be the people she develops words to represent.

I disagree with Marcus.  I don't think Maggie played him.  I think Marcus tried (the changes to her original line) and tried (the Maggie-and-Susana collaboration) and tried (the proposed new Maggie line) to fit a round peg in a square hole.  I think this was an epic fail on his part, and that's why he had to be so adamant with all the cussing, to deflect.

[nb360]

I thought there was something a little odd about Maggie. I understand she is an introvert and protective of her brand, but she was so resistant to change that it was weird she wanted help from any one who was not her father. I’m not sure I could work with someone like that. 

Perhaps Maggie needs to be older to appreciate the changes Marcus was suggesting. I bet in 5 years, she may be a different kind of owner, if she hasn’t sold the company to someone else.

[Showthyme]

19 hours ago, LuvMyShows said:

I generally enjoy this show, and don't find more than 2 or 3 things to snark about.  But this show had enough that I ended up taking notes (I'm leaving out the comments that people here have already covered):

• I don't believe that Maggie called Marcus, even though Marcus asked Maggie why she called him.  Her business was doing well, and in her own explanation, she did not indicate that anything was in trouble, in need of fixing, etc...I think she said something like the business needed to grow.  I believe this was a case of Marcus looking for synergy and pawning it off as a legit episode.
• When Marcus was explaining his proposed deal, he spoke 95% of the time to Maggie's dad, not Maggie.
•  

After seeing sales slump, Maggie's dad may have called Marcus. Maggie doesn't listen to anyone. That includes dear old dad. Maggie is going to be difficult, short-sighted, and obstinate into old age. 

Susana Monaco has a huge library of styles and Maggie certainly could have found something that would work for her brand. There is a lot of talent under the Marcus Lemonis family of products that could have been helpful to Maggie. Maggie is just an unpleasant person and doesn't care to engage in the process. No one is going to be able to help her. 

[sarthaz]

Marcus: I want to create scenarios for Maggie to try new things without the fear of failure

Marcus (2 minutes later): Everything here sucks. You're a failure.

[Tommyisamonster]

Why dont they push her on a street where active ppl work out and say... you cannot come back until you sold all yr "maggie" line... alone... that would have made her a bit more humbler... before fixing up new clothes for example "flywheel"..

How can she stand on the presentation to flywheel and say that their logo ruins the clothes and HER friends or people as she thinks wont buy any clothes... i mean a more narcissistic person hasn't had a opportunity to deal with marcus... dang! 

If i or anyone i know got the possibility to work with marcus I've done whatever he says... because he often knows for real what he is talking about!

Go Marcus!

[CrazyInAlabama]

The idea of putting inspiration sayings inside the waistband is not new.   That woman didn't have an original idea in her head, and only wanted snobby people like her as clients.      I wonder if the dad will ever stop paying her bills?     Susana Monaco and the woman with her (was it Julie, the partner?  It's been a while since I saw this one) looked absolutely sick of Maggie, and her idiocy.     That wasn't a business, it was a hobby.     

Edited November 28, 2018 by CrazyInAlabama

[Willa]

Maggie is fake and her clothing line is boring.  I would never buy anything from Montiel because the owner is an absolute bitch.  Montiel clothing line sucks!