Q&A: 'Apprentice' winner Lee McQueen

Hardcore Apprentice fans will remember series four champion Lee McQueen only too well. With his "that's what I'm talking about!" catchphrase, reverse pterodactyl impressions and little white lie on his CV, he is one of the most memorable, as well as successful, candidates of all time. Ahead of the seventh series, Reality Bites caught up with McQueen to chat about his business projects, reality TV and looking like a "wazzock".

What was it like working for Lord Sugar?
"It was exciting. I won in 2008 as you know and spent two years working with Lord Sugar and his son Simon. I was probably one of the most fortunate Apprentices actually because I joined at a time when they were embarking on a new business, a brand new business, and I went in at director level as a development director and helped mould, shape and set up a brand new business so it wasn't as if I was given a project as it were, a little project to go and deal with, it was actually setting up a new business. We had no brand, we had no marketing, we had no staff, we had no product or service so we had to build everything from scratch and today as I talk to you it's a very successful business called Amscreen so it was a fantastic time. It was brilliant, it was perfect."

Why did you decide to leave?
"The whole Apprentice experience is almost conditioning you to be an entrepreneur. I'd always wanted to set my own business up but I never felt that I had the experience or if I'm honest the confidence although many people would say you're a very confident guy. That might come out on the outside but internally with me I never felt like I had the confidence to go and set my own company up. And working for Lord Sugar for two years and after winning The Apprentice and doing everything I did with Amscreen that gave me the confidence to, that gave me that ability, that experience to go and do it on my own. So ultimately now I'm - corny as it's going to sound - living the dream now because I've set my own company up and seven months down the line it's making a lot of money and it's doing really well. I do have that experience from Amscreen to thank."

Do you have any advice for contestants?
"If they've already got on the show then my advice for the people that are on it would be do your best, work hard. The biggest thing, it never ceases to amaze me, is we're on series seven of The Apprentice and the previous six series, although we love it as a TV programme and Digital Spy love all of that sort of thing as well, we all do as consumers, it never ceases to amaze me the backstabbing and trying to stitch your mate up or trying to stitch up your next team leader. It goes on all the time, the arguments and all that sort of stuff. Actually if you do all the basic things right, if you build relationships which is a must in business, if you work hard and have a really good strong work ethic, which again is a must in business, and if you can do your best and lead by example which again in my opinion is a must in business, if you can get them three things right then you end up winning tasks and you end up not having to backstab people and you end up not having to be taken in the boardroom. I don't know if you or certainly your readers and stuff will remember but out of six series in the UK I'm the only one not to be taken into the final three in the boardroom. I think it's because I built those relationships. The other thing would be if you really want the £250,000 top prize and the experience and the exposure from Lord Sugar it's going to give your business then go out and get it, but if you don't really want to do that, if you just want a bit of press coverage then don't bother applying. That's what my advice would be."

What do you make of people who go on the show looking for fame?
"Again it's each to their own. I think some people have done really, really well out of it. I'm not going to lie, I've got an ego and that's why you go on TV in the first place, isn't it? If you haven't got an ego, you know, if I don't like the limelight I wouldn't have applied for the show in the first place. And I'm not going to lie to you again, the fact of the matter is it's given me some fantastic PR and a good profile for me launching my business so it has been good. But equally it's about what you want to get out of it. I had a fantastic job beforehand, I wasn't that far off the six figure salary in my last company before The Apprentice. It wasn't really a money thing for me, it wasn't really just getting on the TV and getting recognised thing because that does subside quite quickly, let me tell you! It was about learning, it was about trying to get more knowledge and learning about how to do business properly. So what I make of people? Each to their own. If they want to get their five minutes of fame that's absolutely fine but my advice is go in there, take it seriously and get immersed in it because if you do, it can change your life."

Do you still do the reverse pterodactyl?
"That's extinct now, I'm afraid that's extinct. That's extinct. But it's everything for its own purpose. I genuinely believe this and obviously I don't want to give too much away about the process before you get on the show, but in terms of all the different interview processes, I personally believe if I'd never done the reverse pterodactyl, which I'd done in the pre-interview process, I don't think I'd have got on [the show]. And how bizarre is that because ultimately I won it so obviously I deserved to be on there because I was the best candidate because I won, but I probably wouldn't have got on if I didn't reverse pterodactyl. So it did say to me although all the viewers think I was a complete and utter wazzock, by doing something like that in the interview we all know the truth in terms of it got me on the programme in the first place."

Are you still in touch with Lord Sugar?
"Yeah. In fact I watched his programme last night, Lord Sugar Tackles Football, which I thought was fascinating, and had a bit of an email conversation with him back and forth on that. Lord Sugar is one of these people, he's always there if you need him like a mentor type thing, if I need something he'll be there. But he's also one of these people in my opinion, excuse my French but you don't want to take the piss. I'm not going, 'Can I have this? Can I have that? Can you help me with this? Can you help me with that?' I leave him well alone but when I need him I know he's going to be there for me."

What can you tell us about your latest project?
"My business is called Raw Talent Academy, it's a recruitment sales business. The reason why I set the business up was as an employer I've been an employer of sales people for seven or eight years and it's very difficult to find good sales people. A lot of people think that sales is a dirty word, a lot of people think sales isn't a great career but it's a fantastic career, especially in any business because sales is at the heart of any business. If you're looking for a job you need to sell yourself. If you go into and run a multibillion pound organisation you can bet your bottom dollar at the heart of that business is sales. So it doesn't matter what size your organisation is or whatever. The reason why I set that up is because I'm passionate about trying to get not necessarily just youngsters but good fresh talent into sales. I want to try to find different people to come into the industry and the great thing about sales is you don't need to have a formal education. As most of your readers or fans will know because they followed me when I won The Apprentice, I lied on my CV famously. I wanted to use that as an example to say look, just because society says you need to have an education of this, that or whatever it doesn't necessarily mean you can't get on in business, and use me as an example. I had a complex about not having a good education but I haven't done too bad and that's the whole point of setting the business up."

What's next for you?
"It's concentration on the business. I'll also be on Digital Spy. Believe you me, all of us Apprentices when the show's on, we are glued to your website, we're absolutely glued to it because we see all your forums and that sort of stuff. I've been asked would I do reality TV again and I would, I would do it if the opportunity came up. If it was right for me and it was right for my business as well. My focus at the moment is about business. My wife is about to have our first child which isn't public knowledge yet. [Do you want me to keep that quiet?] No, you can go for it if you think it's relevant. But she's 12 weeks away from our first child so that's my focus and the business as well is getting up to speed. I want Raw Talent Academy to be the place, the only place, when anybody wants to get a sales job they visit my website, they visit Raw Talent Academy, that's what I want. But if something like Strictly comes up I can make a few moves and all that sort of stuff! I certainly haven't got the profile for it anymore probably because I haven't been on telly for a while but something like that, if that were to come up I would definitely consider it without a doubt."

Big Brother's back soon - would you go on that?
"Wouldn't do that, wouldn't do that. It's probably what would be pitched because I'm not a big enough star to get on to Strictly Come Dancing or whatever. Big Brother, jungle - I love the jungle but I wouldn't be able to go into the jungle, I don't think it would be right for my business profile. But you never know. They spring up all over the place. You turn on the TV now and there's another show about this and about that so who knows what the future holds on that side."

Lee McQueen and fellow former Apprentice candidates are taking part in the Crestbay Poker Challenge at Fox Poker Club on Thursday, May 12

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