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The Final: Let them eat cake…

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Having won nearly all the tasks that she’d been involved in, Helen looked like she was off to a good start. All she needed now was a clear business plan and a strong pitch. Ìý

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Episode Eleven: Helen’s pie and cash shop…

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As Project Manager Helen set about selecting food for her outlet, she posed possibly the most important question of the series: Ìý‘What do we know about pie and mash?’ It turned out, she knew quite a lot.

Helen’s British themed pie shop went into production with a firm business plan, clear branding and a guest appearance from Christopher Columbus. Organizing a ‘dry run’, Helen indulged the popular pastime of ‘Apprentice amateur dramatics’ and set up a role play, where she entered her own restaurant and purchased a pie. It was a performance that would pay off.

During the pitch Helen had a minor malfunction, staring wide-eyed into the crowd and repeating the word ‘menu’ until Tom had to step in and shake her. However, it was a blip on a roaring success. Team Logic won the task and Helen made landing a place in the final look as easy as … pie.

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Episode Ten: Helen’s duvet dayÌý

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When Melody stepped up to the Project Manager position, Helen chirped, ‘I’m completely behind ya’. And behind her she was, albeit wielding a sharp implement.

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Episode Nine: A star for Helen

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Coming from a food background, Helen was eager to put herself forward to be Project Manager and filled her team with confidence, when she stated, ‘I’ve obviously got some experience in biscuits’. Helen came up with the idea of a kids’ biscuit that ‘You can give them after school’ and after a few dodgy names were banded around, ‘Special Stars’ was born. When Jim pitched the slogan for ‘Special Stars’ as ‘Any time is treat time’, Helen batted off Natasha’s concerns that, ‘They’re not dogs’ and ‘It’s contradictory’, by saying, ‘I have no other option’ and decided to plough ahead with the mixed message biscuit anyway.

The fact that Helen’s biscuit was pitched as an after school treat, but with the slogan ‘Any time is treat time’, caused confusion at the pitches and then when questions were raised about the healthiness of the product, Helen’s star looked like it could be about to fall from the sky.

Helen deflected the awkward questions, turned her pitching skills up to eleven and with some help from Jim, she went on to save the day.ÌýIt was revealed in the boardroom that one of the supermarket outlets had placed an order for 800,000 units of ‘Special Stars’ and once again, Helen was hailed as a star Project Manager. Helen is now on her ninth win, but can she keep her name up in lights during the next task?

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Episode Eight: Euro Star!

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When Helen moved to Team Venture, the rest of her teammates looked hopeful that they might benefit from her winning streak. Posted off to Paris with Jim, Helen attempted to make a few market research calls, but looked a little confused when she realized the person on the other end of the phone was speaking in a different language.Ìý

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Episode Seven: Helen has it Covered…

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Helen started by giving her fellow team members one of her famous pep talks and told them, ‘Think about what will appeal to the advertisers’ market, that’s all, forget about everyone else’. When it was decided that the team was to create a lads’ magazine, Helen tried to steer the concept, suggesting that they pitch it at ‘more professional lads’, the team seemed to think that this was a great idea, but only if they could have semi naked ladies in it as well.

Helen and Tom led a focus group and decided that the lads wanted something more ‘tasteful’ from their magazine, an idea that was clearly lost when she tried to pitch ‘naked free’ as the concept. Helen went on to suggest, ‘Covered’ as a possible name for the magazine and batted away any disagreement from her team with a firm, ‘I like Covered’. This, paired with the distant echo of Tom’s voice agreeing, ‘So do I’ sealed the deal and ‘Covered’ it was.

Helen was asked to help direct the photo shoot, which she admitted she found ‘tacky’, but hoped her readership would enjoy it,. Helen also questioned the feature of, ‘How do you blow your load?’ and tried to confirm that they were pitching their magazine as, ‘Raising the tone of lads’ mags’. She was told that she wasn’t and when her team won the task by selling the most advertising space, Helen decided that tacky wasn’t so bad after all.

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Episode Six: Queen of the dump…

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Putting herself forward as team leader of Team Logic, Helen started with a positive pep talk, telling her teammates, ‘I’ve won the last five, I’m not losing one’.

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Episode Five: The claws are out…

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Placed on Venture’s sub team, Helen’s first task was to come up with ideas and a slogan for a new brand of cat food. Leon, Zoe and Helen decided on ‘Lucky Fish’, a vague concept based around the idea of feeding your cat ‘Lucky Fish’ so that he would be so full up he’d decide against eating your pet fish.Ìý

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Episode Four: Yes we tan

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Placed on team Venture, Helen got involved in choosing the treatments for their Spa range. When the spray tan team pitched their product, Helen showed great enthusiasm, which was a good job really, as that was what she ended up doing for the majority of the task.Ìý

Episode Three: Helen sees the light

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Episode Two: Coulda, shoulda, woulda

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During a lively brainstorm, Helen helped smooth a rift between Edna and Susan by trying to move things forward, promptly stating, ‘we need a new idea, really quick really simple’.

The new idea that was created came from the market research team, in the form of an annoying sounds App, named Ampi-App. Helen was on the team that produced the sounds for the App and her chorus of ‘surprise’ was done with enthusiasm and commitment. She suggested that Melody do the live pitch, as ‘it’s what she does for a living’ but was put firmly in her place by Edna, who had decided to do it herself.

When it was revealed that the girls had only secured one online magazine deal Helen remained positive, saying, ‘the mentality now is sell, sell, sell’. However, this positivity wasn’t echoed in the boardroom, with Helen admitting that she wasn’t behind the product and thought ‘we could have done better’.

Luckily for her the girls won the task. Maybe it was her unique rendition of ‘surprise’ that coined it; maybe not!

Helen was on winning team Venture.
App Downloads after 6 hours: just under 1000
Total downloads after 24 hrs: 10667

Episode One: Putting the gal in galvanize…

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Helen went head-to-head with Melody to pitch for a team name but her suggestions of ‘Galvanize’ and ‘Platinum’, were both rejected in favour of Melody’s suggestion, ‘Venture’.

Not deterred, she put herself up to become Project Manager but was also rejected in favour of Melody. Taking both snubs with a smile, she told her nemesis that the team would be ‘right by you’. Ensconced on the pasta team Helen showed concern that the pasta wouldn’t be ready for the lunch-time rush.

Sadly, her concern didn’t speed up the manufacturing process and her fears became a reality. ÌýDespite the vegetable pasta only making £37.28 profit, the girls managed to shine on the sales of their fruit pots and Helen was sent back to the house to enjoy being galvanized with a champagne reception.

Helen was on the winning team Venture. Their total profit was £592.

About Helen Louise

Stockport born Helen describes herself as ‘calm, loyal and tenacious’ and enjoys reading in her free time. A keen swimmer, she studied law atÌý university and climbed the ranks from part time work as a waitress to managing a restaurant before landing her role as Executive Assistant to the CEO of a bakery.

Check back for weekly updates on Helen during the series ...