With a passion to launch her own Recruitment Consultancy following her career experiences in the sector, Flo set off on her mission to gain a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar to kick-start her journey. In the first episode, she said “My warning to the other candidates? Don’t underestimate me. I’m here to win.”
Her journey to the show began in early 2023 when watching season 17. Encouraged by family and friends to apply, she went through a rigorous interview process to gain her spot on the show, beating thousands of other candidates to get herself a seat in the boardroom.
In the 12-week long season, Flo made it to week 11 having been on the winning team for seven out of ten tasks, including one as the project manager. In Flo’s final week, which aired on 11 April, she was interviewed by four of Lord Sugar’s trusted advisors: Claudine Collins, Claude Littner, Linda Plant and Mike Soutar. The 2015 BA Fine Art graduate had her business plan scrutinised in what is a favourite episode for many fans of The Apprentice. Ultimately, her ambition was questioned, and Flo was respectfully ‘fired’ from the process, missing a spot in the final.
In the show for the entirety of the season, including helping a fellow candidate in the final, it must be hard to choose any highlights when there’s so many great moments.
We asked Flo what her favourite task or episode was – and there’s certainly a few.
She picked out one of the latter ones, where she was really able to push herself outside of her comfort zone – a great lesson for anyone interested in trying something new.
Flo was encouraged by fellow contestant Tre to rap in an advert, and whilst it was enjoyable, she says she’s not likely to be rapping again any time soon.
“He’s super creative. I’d managed to avoid doing any sort of videography or being on the screen taping any adverts and then he plonked me right there and asked me to do a rap. I was so out of my comfort zone, but because I was so out there, I ended up absolutely loving it.
“It was a really enjoyable experience. Would I rap again? Absolutely not! But it was a good experience.”
It was in the early days of the show that Flo realised she had a little bit of impostor syndrome. Surrounded by fellow contestants who already had their own businesses, Flo was encouraged by having a go, and negotiating well. She added:
“I was one of the few candidates that didn’t have a business at the time. I was with award-winning pie-makers, executives and musicians... Everybody was amazing, and it was me without a business. I had a bit of impostor syndrome, and I knew I had to prove I had business skills instead.
When I did the cheesecake negotiation, I backed myself, because I really had to deliver on it. One of the things that I have walked away from the process with is the importance of backing yourself and believing in yourself.”
Flo sporting a North Studio tee, supporting one of her fellow contestants’ businesses
So, what’s the boardroom really like?
“It’s almost exactly how it looks. It’s really nerve-wracking and intimidating. You have to speak up in order to warrant your place.
“It’s learning the fine balance between over-speaking and under-speaking. I think that if you look from the candidates, those that approached the boardroom without dimming other peoples’ light, they shined brighter and did better.”
Flo was back in the boardroom in the firing line in week nine, but ultimately owned up to mistakes made on the task. The task involved selling products on a television shopping channel. Flo was in the gallery dropping prices, having never watched a shopping channel before. She said:
“I knew I had to be doing something, but I didn’t really know what.
“I had a crack at it and sometimes it doesn’t work out, but you still have to take responsibility.”
Flo talked about taking a shot in netball and the importance of taking that shot even if the result doesn’t go your way.
She added: “You absolutely have to take accountability of the mistakes. Not everybody makes the perfect decisions that is going to result in a win.
You actually learn a lot more from your mistakes than you do from the win.”
A couple of weeks on from that loss, and Flo was in the penultimate episode of the series with four fellow candidates.
Flo was “honoured” to make the final five. A prestigious spot in the interview episode is a valuable opportunity:
“It was an honour to be named in that cohort. They were award-winners in all their specialised fields. To be named in that group was amazing. I was really really happy with how the process went.
“In terms of what the interviews were like, ultimately, I was fired for being too ambitious, which I’ll absolutely take. If you’re going to be fired for anything, at least it’s your ambition.
I was fortunate enough to have four exceptional, formidable business executives rip my plan apart and tell me everything that’s wrong with it. Now I can go and take that feedback and implement it.”
Having learned a lot from the advice given by the business advisors, Flo has launched Hathor Talent and is a few months in to her business journey. The consultancy is set up to harness diversity in Executive Search & Interim Management within Finance for Private Capital Portfolio Companies.
How do you get into recruitment from a Fine Art degree? It’s not necessarily the most obvious career choice.
A lover of art from a young age, she enjoyed her course and time at Loughborough. The University gave her the opportunity to pair her passions.
Growing up I had two passions: netball and art. Loughborough provided that for me.
“I wanted to go and be an artist after university and had a few exhibitions and started selling my work. I realised there was pressure on making and producing art, as opposed to it being more of a hobby.”
Sat chatting in a pub with a friend, Flo was exploring what she could do next. Her friend encouraged her to try out recruitment:
“The next day I called up a couple of local recruitment agencies, had an interview and started the following week.”
It kick-started her career in recruitment and now Flo is going it alone with her own business.
“People go into recruitment to make money really quickly. You can certainly do that with the right attitude and skills, but you get to a point where you want more than that. It’s about what’s fulfilling and what are you are actually getting out of it. What are you implementing and how are you making change?
“With the sector that I work in, only 13% of private equity investors globally are female. It’s improving in the FTSE, but private markets not so much.
“So, if I don’t do this now, when am I going to do it?”
With her go-getting attitude and a passion to make a change, what’s next for Hathor Talent on this exciting journey?
“Taking on all of the feedback that I had from the interviewers, I scaled down the ambition slightly, making it less aggressive and less risky.”
With The Apprentice over, Flo “can focus on growing the business” and “improving diversity in the private equity portfolio companies”.
Flo played netball for Loughborough Lightning for three years
Flo played netball for Loughborough Lightning. With a sporting mindset, how has that helped in a business setting?
Flo referenced a study conducted in 2020 by EY that showed 94% of women executives participate in sports, with 52% of women having played at university level.
There’s so many transferable skills that you learn through sport and business.
“At Loughborough we had early morning gym sessions and 6am in the netball centre.”
If one person was late, the session wouldn’t start properly until they arrived.
"The accountability is what I think about and taking ownership for being late.
“You’ve obviously got timekeeping and balancing being an athlete alongside doing your studies. Working as a team and learning about the power of diversity of thought and that not everyone comes from the same walk of life that you do - everyone brings different components to a team that make it up as a whole.
“That obviously can be applied in the business world. And finally, leadership!”
With so many learnings under her belt from the show, sport, and business so far, we asked Flo for her advice for budding entrepreneurs who are considering how to make that step towards launching a business.
“You have to really be passionate and believe in what you’re doing. You can’t just think of an idea and think that’s going to make loads of money. You genuinely have to want to wake up every day and be excited to do it
“This is alongside backing yourself and believing in yourself.
If you don’t believe in yourself, then nobody else will.”
Season 18 of The Apprentice is available on BBC iPlayer.
Thank you to Flo for taking the time to chat about her experience. Find out more about Hathor Talent.