On Monday, November 15, we spoke to Poppy Carlig, who had been the eleventh contestant fired by Donald Trump on the November 11 episode of The Apprentice.   Poppy elected to be project manager for Fortitude, while Clint volunteered to be project manager for Octane.  The task: to design an in-store display to showcase the new perfume fragrance of Kim Kardashian.  Ms. Kardashian herself judged the results of the two teams, and she found the display created by Poppy, Stephanie, and Liza to be very amateurish and akin to an arts-and-crafts project bedazzled by sequins than the more upscale looking women's vanity-inspired display designed by Steuart from Clint's team.

Since leaving The Apprentice, Poppy has embarked on a relationship in San Francisco with fellow contestant, David Johnson, as revealed in our last interview with David himself.

Here are the facts about Poppy Carlig from her NBC Apprentice bio:  Poppy Carlig, 24 (Richmond, Calif.), a recent Stanford graduate, who has a Bachelor of Arts in Human Biology and Master's in Sociology, hasn't been able to secure a full time job in her chosen field.  She was offered a job doing breast cancer research, but unfortunately due to the economic recession, the funding fell through.  Carlig currently lives in Richmond, California with her parents and works as a part time caretaker for her grandmother.  As a competitive synchronized swimmer, making the Olympic training squad and winning 4 NCAA championship titles in college, Carlig is ready to use her competition skills.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO POPPY CARLIG OF THE APPRENTICE 10: 

USTH: Good to speak to you today, Poppy. Now, going back to the first part of the show – the segment where Anand got fired – you guys were all in your street clothes, so it looked like a very different setup than normal.
So just take us through that process. What were you told by the producers before you entered the boardroom, and what did you expect was going to happen in there before Donald Trump revealed that Anand had sent text messages to his friend in violation of the rules of The Apprentice?

POPPY CARLIG: You know, I really was not sure what was going on. We were woken up extremely early that morning.  The people that chaperone us around and move us around, they were hustling and bustling.  So I knew something was going on.  I figured it was just going to be like a corporate restructuring where Mr. Trump switches up the teams again because he wasn't happy.  But then, I heard Mr. Trump bellow from the boardroom, "Bring the contestants in!" And I thought, "Oh boy, we're in really big trouble. We did something very, very wrong."  So I didn't really know what it was – who it was. I just knew that he was very, very angry.

USTH: If you had been in that situation that Anand had been in, and Mr. Trump confronted you that you did something outside of the rules, how would you have handled that situation as opposed to the way Anand did?

POPPY CARLIG: I definitely wouldn't have lied to Mr. Trump.  First of all, it takes a pretty conscious act to sneak a cell phone into The Apprentice.  It also takes a pretty conscious act to text someone when you're project manager.
So, if I would have been in that position and Mr. Trump had confronted me I would say right away, "Yes, I did that, and I messed up."  It's difficult for me to put myself in that situation, though, because I would never do that.

USTH: Moving on to the actual task – creating an in-store display to showcase Kim Kardashian's new perfume.  When you guys were in the boardroom, and Liza looked at the competitor's project – the vanity that Steuart designed – and sort of gushed over it, what were your feelings, first about Liza's strong reaction to the competitor's product, and secondly, what do you think about the other team's project, yourself?

POPPY CARLIG: I thought that Clint's project was phenomenal, and the thoughts in my head were vocalized by Liza.  I knew that we had lost the task the second I saw their product.
The thing that bothered me about Liza is she doesn't really say things at the proper time.  It didn't surprise me that she said that, though.  She did that when we were meeting executives sometimes.  For example, when we met the executive from Perfumania, she openly admitted that she never had even heard of the store.  So, she could use some tact.  That would happen a few times.

USTH: Once the show was over, did you stay in touch or become friendly with any of the contestants – besides David, of course.

POPPY CARLIG: Yes, I have definitely gained some great friendships.  Brandy and I are very close.  We started our friendship on the show, and it has continued.  And she is San Francisco, so it makes it easy to maintain a friendship.

USTH: What are your feelings about Stephanie because, on the show, she said she really liked working with you – that you two compliment each other, but you have said things where it sounded like maybe your feelings about her aren't exactly the same.  Just to clear that up, what is the relationship between you and Stephanie, and how do you feel about her?

POPPY CARLIG: I think that Stephanie and I work well together. I think that is true. I don't think that we work well against one another [on different teams]. You know, throughout the season and the episodes, there were a number of times when she would say things that were less than kind about me or to me.  Taking ownership for ideas and things that maybe I had come up with.  So, I think that she is a great person.  She is someone who I like to hang out with – not necessarily someone who I would want to work with.

USTH: Looking back at the experience on The Apprentice overall, what do you take from that?  And if you could, would you do it all over again?

POPPY CARLIG: I would definitely repeat this experience.  I essentially went through business school, and I also got a scholarship to business school.  So it was a great experience. Overall, I learned maturity, I think.  I really learned that not everyone likes sequins, which is fine.  But, I also found professional passions that I may be interested in.

So, I have no idea where I'm heading, professionally.  I think that this show definitely just opened my eyes to more opportunities because I am young and I have the world in front of me.

The Apprentice airs each Thursday night at 10:00pm Eastern & Pacific / 9:00pm Central on NBC.

Use the image gallery below to read the other interviews in this series

01/16