Hey Apprentice Fans. Hope you all enjoyed last night's episode! We began this week with Lisa bringing home a win for GMHC, a great charity that she is very passionate about. Last week was a tough week emotionally for Lisa so I think this was a much-needed boost.
My father met the teams in Trump Tower in his home, which is a rare setting for task delivery. I think the teams were in awe of the decor and the views, which are incredible. Hopefully, they soaked it all in as they would need that inspiration for the next task. My brother, Eric, and George were joined by our executives this week, Martine from Macy's and Cathy from our licensing division of the Trump Organization. The teams were tasked with creating an in-store display and presentation for Success by Trump, my father's new fragrance, launching exclusively at Macy's. The teams selected their project managers, and it was round two for Aubrey and Clay. The pressure was on not only because this was my father's fragrance but also because he upped the ante by increasing the winner's potential earnings to $100,000. However, the $100,000 would only be granted to the PM that created something that my father loved.
The teams split off and began brainstorming. It was between Clay and Penn to take on this task as PM and Penn seemed uncomfortable with the task and yet had quite a few ideas for the team. It was interesting to see that he was not confident in being PM but certainly found his voice and ideas while in the war room. It was decided early on that Dayana would be the face of the campaign, which in my opinion was a smart move. Nothing bothers me more than when the celebrities don't utilize their own talents for certain tasks.
Aubrey was feeling less than thrilled with her teammates, Arsenio and Theresa. Creatively and in the brainstorming process, Arsenio has performed quite strongly, and in the past, the two have had issues. I was looking forward to seeing how they would interact and if they would end up playing "tug of war" between concepts. As the teams get smaller and smaller, it is harder to avoid those people that you don't necessarily "mesh" with, and whether you like your teammates or not, tasks of these magnitude often require all hands on deck.
The teams both decided to incorporate a building theme which, given that we are in the real estate business, made perfect sense. Now finding the interesting and attractive twist on a display with a building/skyline theme would be the challenge. The executives reiterated that it was important to create something that was true to the Trump brand. The team came up with using Dayana in the campaign and Penn contributed the slogan, "You Earned It." Clay was hesitant to take the first idea but also felt he should manage by consensus. That to me was a slippery slope. As the project manager, you are often on the chopping block for the main theme so if you don't believe in it completely, and should you lose, it will be hard to defend yourself in the Boardroom.
Aubrey and Arsenio were having trouble reaching the same definition of success, but unlike Clay, Aubrey was not leading by consensus and was making the decisions for her team. Aubrey came up with a few ideas, one of which was, "Trust Your Instincts" a concept backed up by Arsenio when he found a video online with my father quoted saying just that. As the team arrived at the studio to begin building the set, Aubrey couldn't get rid of her team fast enough, sending both Theresa and Arsenio on a fabric run. Clearly you do not need two people to do that job but, Aubrey wanted to take this one on herself, which, if she lost, would mean that the decision could be quite clear. The team also decided to incorporate a silhouette of my brother Eric. I wasn't sure I understood where they were going with that one but was looking forward to seeing how they executed.
Over on Clay's team, Lisa and Dayana were getting along quite well, and Lisa was almost being nice, a far cry from last week's puppet show meltdown. Clay was having a tough time making a decision on certain materials and as the celebrities should know by now, there is never enough time on the clock. After selecting their hopefully winning shot of Dayana, they were off painting and building their set. Dayana suggested creating "takeaway" pieces for the display, but Clay shot down idea due to the timing restriction.
It was time for the teams' presentations, which they should be quite comfortable making this far along into the season. However, Clay seemed to have forgotten about that element. He delivered a short introduction on their display and opened the floor up a little too early for questions. The awkward presentation likely felt like hours when in reality it was only a few minutes or so. Aubrey's team had a bit more polished presentation incorporating all three team members. Theresa and Arsenio were likely thrilled about this as I am sure the expectation was that they wouldn't be involved given their assignments this week or lack thereof.
The teams arrived in the Boardroom both feeling very confident in what they had put together this week. Clay was very happy with all of his team members and Lisa went as far as to say that he is in the top 2 of the PMs she has worked with thus far on the show. Aubrey also expressed that her team was incredibly supportive and also went as far as to say "they all did the work." I was curious to see if this would change if their team lost. However, we wouldn't be able to find out as my father announced that Aubrey's team had won this task. This was a very tough call as there were so many elements that the executives and my father liked from each team. Essentially, if you could blend the two concepts, I believe they could have had something incredible.
There was really no loser this week. Well... one person would be fired, but my father did generously give $10,000 to each of the celebrities as he thought they all did a great job, and then gave $40,000 to the winning PM. The winning team exited the Boardroom and that meant that Clay, Lisa, Penn and Dayana (for the sixth time!) would be left to battle it out.
It was a very tough decision and one that I did not envy my father making. The executives hated the slogan that Penn came up with. They felt that it was pompous and not in line with the brand messaging. Ultimately Penn was fired given that this was the element that was most disliked by the executives and really a detriment to their task. Clay was not off the hook this week and I hope that he learned a valuable lesson about leading by consensus and not taking the reins as project manager.
I hope you all enjoyed this week's Celebrity Apprentice! Looking forward to next week already, which looks like it will be a tough week for Dayana. It seems she will not only drive Lisa to explode yet again but also Clay this time! Hope you will tune in with me live on Twitter www.twitter.com/donaldjtrumpjr