The Apprentice 2019 candidate, Lewis Ellis talks to us about his experiences from the show. Lewis explains about his exciting plans to launch the first Hiddn Travel tour this Summer 2020 with plans to scale and diversify in business…
What was your one stand-out memory from being on The Apprentice? My favourite memory from The Apprentice is walking past the Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park and having some kids shout down to me an Ryan-Mark Parsons. Of course, The Inbetweeners is filmed there so everyone is reminded when they get on the ride. We were walking past minding our own business only to have someone shout “Suit W*nkers” down at us from the ride. It made me laugh to be fair.
Looking back, what would you have done differently? I don’t have regrets, but I do wish I could go back and rethink the perfume task. In my exhausted state, 10 weeks in, I couldn’t have made it worse if I’d tried.
What was the most challenging task of the series? I would say that the music task was easily the hardest as none of us had experience in the industry and we literally had no idea what we were doing. Not only that, but my team lost.
Who did you enjoy working with the most? I enjoyed working with Jemelin, we would laugh and joke around for the entire day, and a very long, boring day of filming quickly flies by.
Are you keeping in touch with any of the contestants? I speak to more-or-less all of the candidates that made it towards the end on an almost daily basis. We’re very supportive of one another and share our business successes and things we’re doing since finishing the show. It’s also a great support network for sharing advice.
What did you miss the most whilst being away from home on The Apprentice? I genuinely missed the gym! I was fed up with not being able to train and each week I could feel myself getting weaker and feeling fatter. I struggled so much to get back into it after leaving the show.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned from being on The Apprentice? I’ve always had the mindset and believed you should not be afraid to put yourself out there, and never back down from a challenge. It’s the advice I’ve always tried to follow, but I found that advice put to the test in the show.
What are your plans now (are you going back to your marketing job or pursuing the travel business idea?) There is no either/or. I am working full-time in marketing and will continue to do so. I also have my own freelance marketing clients and Hiddn Travel is being created as we speak. We expect our first tour to go live on sale in just a few weeks for summer 2020.
What is your business plan vision/mission statement? We’re rejuvenating the youth travel market from an otherwise uninspired current form.
What will make your tours different from others? We’re going to destinations you wouldn’t associate with a youth travel destination and we’re doing it in style. Our guests will be treated like VIP’s and experience unparalleled events and hotels that are so amazing you’d swear they were created with Instagram in mind. Beautiful destinations and unforgettable experiences. Bliss.
What’s your ultimate goal as an entrepreneur? I want to build a successful travel company, then I want to move on to create a marketing agency, I then want to run multiple other organisations in the future. My plan is to scale and then diversify once the business is at a level where it can be left in the hands of my hired management.
