The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, Episode 4: MVPs and LVPs, Corner Office and Mailroom Assignments

This week’s task focused on having a vision! Because the Westin Hotel was launching a marketing campaign centered around renewing the mind, body, and spirit of their guests, each team was provided with an empty two bedroom suite. The teams were instructed to create an extraordinary lifestyle suite, and for this task the teams would need a da... daa... daaa... VISION!

Leslie volunteered to jump from her winning team, Primarius, to help bring the malfunctioning Matchstick team to victory. Charles remarked that anyone taking on the Matchstick team had to have great courage. I personally think courage had nothing to do with this. If Leslie really had had courage, she would have jumped behind Howie and pushed his arm up in the volunteer position! Anywho, a confident Leslie assured us that if anyone in the loft could pull off leading the Matchstick team, it was she.

Primarius

Amanda volunteered to be Project Manager and, with everyone on board, she put first things first. The team visited their suite to see what exactly what they would be working with. Upon entering the suite, they found their rooms huge and barren. The floors and walls were stripped, the windows void of treatments, and light fixtures were non-existent. After taking it all in, the team retreated to a conference room to decide on their “vision.” Sarah threw out the idea of having a room that centered on entertaining. Amanda immediately bought into it and dubbed their vision “Westin Entertains!” Taking this idea to the next step, she decided that incorporating games into their design would further enhance the suite.

Carrie volunteered some color schemes, and she just so happened to have a few swatches with her. Amanda shot down her swatches, choosing to leave the color and wallpaper decisions in the hands of the interior designer Ryan had found. Amanda had faith in the color scheme, but the rest of the team seemed a tad unhappy with their prison gray bathroom. Noting that her fellow natives were getting restless, Amanda rewarded her group with sharpened pencils adorned with team spirit notes, while praising her team as the sharpest people she knows. The team was rejuvenated and ready to kick ass!

Primarius – Corner Office

Amanda gets to put her feet up on the cherry desk in this coveted spot, which comes complete with its view of New Jersey. As much as I would have liked her to listen to her teammates more, she pulled it off! She was also willing to take full responsibility for the designer’s ideas, even if they failed. When her teammates started grumbling about the prison colors of the bathroom, or how the suite wasn’t what they had envisioned, Amanda rewarded each of them with a pencil and a “feel good” note. It then hit me how much Martha and Amanda have in common! Being that crappy rewards bring awesome smiles, I will reward Amanda with a Martha Stewart Living key chain engraved with “It’s a good thing,” and a jar of M&Ms. But like Martha, she only gets one!

Primarius – Mailroom

What to do, what to do? They all worked hard and, after a few moments of grumbling, pulled through in their normal good team spirit. They created an entertaining, fun, but still luxurious suite, accessorized with dominoes, bowls of poker chips, board games, and candy. Their entertainment/TV viewing area was comfortable, and complemented with an old fashioned popcorn machine. Once again, the mailroom can stay empty. I think I’ll let everyone join Amanda in the Corner Office for a bit of team backslapping! In keeping with Martha/Amanda rewards, I’ll throw in box lunches of tuna on wheat, with pickles and chips for all. I hope they don’t forget to bring Amanda one! Oh, yeah, they can each have one M&M, too.

Matchstick

Project Manager Leslie believed that this was a task that they could win if they organized themselves. She sat the group down for a quick brainstorming session. Vision ideas, anyone, anyone? Leslie took the lead, sharing hers first: “How ‘bout a toy room?” Hmm, maybe no one heard her. To quote Martha, “Everyone has to believe that your idea is a good idea!” Which is probably the reason everyone ignored Bethenny when she said, “Doily cats!” (Doily cats? What the heck is a doily cat? Did I hear that right? No matter, it cracked me up!)

Anywho, this group seemed to be playing a word game... like how many words can you spit out that no one will respond to? We heard, “a photography room, entertaining, business travelers, surf the net, play golf, the comforts of home!” The clock was ticking and the group was still yapping. To use the word “brainstorming” would make one believe the brain was being used. (Meanwhile, I had started lighting matches just to watch them burn down.) The group continued spewing out words: “Tranquility, peace, watching TV, games, mellow, bittersweet, with your family, grandma, grandpa!” And on… and on… and on they mulled.