On Thursday, December 2, we spoke to Gene Folkes, the fifth contestant to be fired by Donald Trump, on the October 14 episode of the television series, The Apprentice.  The task for that episode involved doing a quickie fashion show – apparantly each team only had four hours to prepare – for the Rockport shoe company, one of the sponsors of this season.  The women's team, Fortitude, gave a bravura performance, which was anchored by Brandy's turn as emcee of her team's show. The men, however, had a much more difficult time and looked ill-prepared and under-rehearsed on stage, much to the consternation of Donald Trump.  The project manager on the task was Wade Hanson, and the emcee for the men's team was Gene.  By the time the episode had finished, both were fired.  The boardroom sequence where Gene and Wade were fired was particularly memorable because Donald Trump was not simply disappointed in the men's team, he was visibly angry and was shouting at both Wade and Gene for what he perceived to be a lackluster effort from them.

Here are the facts about Gene Folkes from his NBC Apprentice bio: Gene Folkes, 46 (Wylie, Texas), has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Morris Brown College and served in the US Air Force. Folkes previously worked at several high profile financial companies as a financial advisor. After being laid off, Folkes has been trying to get his own assisted living facility off the ground while living off of his savings and retirement. Folkes was born in Jamaica, grew up in the Midwest, and currently resides in Wylie, Texas. He is an avid motorcycle enthusiast and cigar aficionado.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO GENE FOLKES OF THE APPRENTICE 10:

USTH: I'm just trying to get a sense of the overall task. There seemed to be so much editing of the performance of the task in that particular episode because the boardroom seemed to be extended. So when you guys say that it was four hours for the task, did that mean you had four hours to write the speech, or did it mean when you got the task to when you performed it live, it was four hours in between?

GENE FOLKES: Right, that's correct. In other words, when we got task delivery – when we met that morning, and Mr. Trump had actually delivered a task, it was go-time. So the minute we all left we were going to go back to the war room and start strategizing. When we got back, there were shoes from Rockport. And so, between the time that we had to initially pick out wardrobe, come up with a theme, assign different pieces of the task to team members, and then from go-time, which means we're actually going to do the fashion show, that was four hours.

USTH: Okay. Because normally the tasks take place over two days, right? You do part of it one day and then you present the next day?

GENE FOLKES: That is correct.

USTH: Okay, but for this particular task, it was just all in one day.

GENE FOLKES: All in one day, yes.

USTH: From the edit, I didn't get a clear sense of what exactly were Wade and Clint doing for this task. I understand that Anand and Steuart went shopping and you and David were writing your speeches. What did Clint and Wade do for those four hours?

GENE FOLKES: You know, that's a good question. I mean...

USTH: Because I didn't see it.

GENE FOLKES: No, no, that was a good question and I think that's ultimately why Mr. Trump made the decision that he did regarding Wade. I think Wade – and I know Wade and I have talked but I think Wade has a different leadership style. And I think Wade's strategy was to assign tasks to people, have them do it, and he has the overall oversight of the task. Clint – I'm not really sure what he was doing during the task. I know he eventually ended up helping out with matching the shoes with the models and some of the cleanup work, if you will. And I know he put together an Excel spreadsheet that was actually on that laptop. Mine was just note cards. We were just supposed to do note cards, write that down, but they wanted something very specific. Name the shoe, name the woman, and the whole thing. So I'm not really sure what Clint's task was – what his job was during that task. And I think maybe Wade was in charge of logistics.

USTH: How many shoe styles were there that you had to talk about exactly?

GENE FOLKES: Well, there was – how many models did we have? Did we have eight? And each model had two pairs. So it was like 16 pairs of shoes.

USTH: And you had to write all 16 speeches yourself?

GENE FOLKES: Yes, yes.

USTH: So that's what I'm asking: why did it fall on you to write all 16 speeches and to perform them live instead of maybe dividing up the speech writing? Then you could perform all 16 but have three people, four people write them – each of you take four shoe styles and divide it up that way so you'd have more time to rehearse. You didn't have any time to rehearse, it seems.

GENE FOLKES: No, that's correct. No, we didn't because we had to run around, and there were other things that we needed to do other than that. What the women did – which I thought from a strategic standpoint was smart – was they had come up with a theme first. Everything was, "A Day in the Life of Tristan." I thought that was something that we should have done, but I think that was a project manager decision as far as the logistics and how that worked. So, you know, I mean your guess is as good as mine.

USTH: The tone of the boardroom in your particular case was very different from most of the others. It wasn't just Mr. Trump telling you why you lost and what you did wrong. He was certainly visibly upset with you guys – really kind of yelling at both you and Wade and pretty much all the guys. What did you feel about his reaction? Did you expect that severe of a reaction, and did you think it was justified?

GENE FOLKES: You know what? – did not expect that severe of a reaction. That was really shocking that he was really that upset. Do I think it was justified? No, not at all – not that severe. You know, to be called illiterate, to be called, you know, certain things, yes, to me that was crossing the line and that's why he got the response from me that he did.

However, I would say this: that during the course of this show, and I have no reason to defend people, people kept teasing Mr. Trump about having a bromance – that he really liked David or seemed to have bonded with him in some kind of way. I'm kind of a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy.

And so initially, I believe, that that emotion [from Mr. Trump] – it's like being disappointed in a child and sometimes parents just kind of fly off the handle, if you will. He and I had a one-on-one, and initially I took it like, he's just really disappointed in the performance because he had expected me to be at the end of this program. And, he came down later – and I know this is maybe going to blow your socks off – and put his arm around me and shook my hand and said, "Man, why? You really gave me no choice." Just a different side of him that I don't think a lot of people saw.

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 

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On Tuesday, November 30, we spoke to Steuart Martens, the thirteenth contestant to be fired by Donald Trump on the reality television series, The Apprentice.  In this segment, "Driving Miz-rahi," Fortitude (now consisting of Brandy and Liza) and Octane (Clint and Steuart), were assigned the task of creating and starring in a live sales segment for Issac Mizrahi merchandise for the cable shopping channel, QVC.  At the conclusion of the task, the women's team earned about $800 more in profit than the men's team did.  In the boardroom segment, Mr. Trump clearly had a hard time picking between Steuart and Clint, and said just before he decided to fire Steuart that there were no losers between the two.

Here are the facts about Steuart Martens from his NBC Apprentice bio: Steuart Martens, 27 (Washington, D.C.), born and raised in Washington DC, was the successful owner of four companies. Unfortunately, as the economy took a downturn, Martens was forced to close down two of his companies and lay off his entire staff. A serial entrepreneur, he is always looking for the next big business venture opportunity. Martens attended Purdue University on a swimming scholarship and received a Bachelor of Science in business. He also made it to the Olympic trials for swimming and is heavily involved in DC government.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO STEUART MARTENS OF THE APPRENTICE 10:

USTH: When you initially joined the competition and you're sizing people up and then as you got to know them week by week, is there anyone who surprised you in terms of how you thought of them initially versus how they performed during the competition? Anyone who you thought did better than you thought they would have done or did worse than you thought they would have done in the competition?

STEUART MARTENS: The person that surprised me most was probably James Weir. I thought he was going to be one of the strongest competitors there and it turned out to be the total opposite. I still really respect him. I'm not saying he's a bad guy or anything. It was just I was really worried about him at the beginning because before I knew him I thought just by looking at that guy – "All right, he's going to do very well in the challenge."

USTH: Is there anyone who you thought would not do well that really did well or at least better than you thought they would?

STEUART MARTENS: I definitely had a feeling it might be Clint. With Clint, I just didn't see him doing this well in the competition – very surprised.

USTH: When it came down to you and Clint in the boardroom, did you anticipate that it would be easy to convince Mr. Trump that you were the better candidate – perhaps underestimating Clint? Or did you think that he might be a formidable opponent for you in the boardroom talking to Mr. Trump at the end?

STEUART MARTENS: I knew Clint's a great talker and [does well in those] situations, but I really wasn't worried in the boardroom. [But] it was what it was, and I wasn't expecting a cat fight but I also wasn't expecting to roll over. In my opinion, when we were in the board room, we lost a project. Clint was the project manager. He made the decision on what we were going to sell [the handbag] at. And I just found it shocking when my portion of the task was virtually perfect, and everyone said I couldn't have done a better job – I'm stunned at the way things turned out. It's totally the opposite of what I thought going into this.

USTH: Have you become friends with any of the other contestants since filming wrapped?

STEUART MARTENS: Not really, but I still talk to Anand and Clint on somewhat of a regular basis. There's no one else I really keep in touch with.

USTH: What advice would you give to the next season of Apprentice, not the celebrity apprentices, but if they should ever do the "civilian" version all over again? What advice would you give to the next cast if you could?

STEUART MARTENS: My advice would be play the game to win. Stay out of the boardroom by winning. I don't like the manipulative way some people play the game where they might intentionally lose a task so they [can] get someone fired because they know they'd be saved – all those kind of games. I don't really like that. I really like playing the game to make sure we won. If you go your best every task versus try to play games, you're going to be very successful in the show, and you're going to go a long way.

USTH: What do you take away from the experience overall, and would you do it all over again?

STEUART MARTENS: Well, first, I would definitely do it again. I really loved the experience. It was great – great period of learning for me where I got to learn a lot about the entertainment industry and learned about a lot of other people. It just was a really overall phenomenal thing for me. And, the takeaways would be that when you're in that kind of a stressful situation, and you're working almost 20 hours a day for weeks on end, [you must] really learn to focus. And for me, that was the problem I had when I started four companies, and I was all over the place and doing tasks sometimes half-assed to say I was focusing on three other companies. That experience [of being on The Apprentice] taught me to slow down. It's really such a simple solution – just really stay focused on a couple things versus all of them.

USTH: You mentioned about learning about the entertainment industry. Has the entertainment bug bit you? Do you want a career in the entertainment industry in some way, shape or form?

STEUART MARTENS: No question. In some capacity I would love to stay in the entertainment world. I'm not saying I'm going to become Hollywood's next famous movie star, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of creating the show. Hopefully that'll transcend into something else in the next few weeks here for me.

USTH: Thank you very much for talking with us today, and good luck to you in the future.

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 

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On Friday, November 19, we spoke to Stephanie Castagnier, who was the twelfth contestant fired by Donald Trump on the reality television series, The Apprentice.  Stephanie was fired on last night's episode after she and her teammate, Liza, lost to Steuart, Clint, and Brandy on the task of creating a 30-second commercial for AT&T Mobile TV and FLOTV.  Despite Stephanie delivering a good presentation, the executives judging the commercials did not like her concept which featured people watching television on their mobile devices while at work and did not put the product brand name front and center.

Here are the facts about Stephanie Castagnier from her NBC Apprentice bio: Stephanie Castagnier, 34 (Chicago, IL), born and raised in Montreal, has been a fighter since a very young age. Having both her parents pass away from AIDS when she was only a teenager, Castagnier started her career by putting herself through college at McGill University while working full time. Since then, she has worked as a commercial banker, at which she found success at a young age and was ranked among the top commercial lenders in the country several years running. After being directly impacted by the effects of the recession in the financial sector, she is looking to take control of her life and be proactive in her career. Additionally, Castagnier founded Child Cause/Fear to Fire, a non-profit organization that provides a peer network to teens affected by AIDS and substance abuse by inspiring through the arts and has authored a book titled "Fear to Fire." Castagnier is very athletic, a national speaker and continues to write.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER OF THE APPRENTICE 10:

USTH: It was very interesting at the end of the show, during the Rockport "Next Steps" segment, where it was revealed that you now work in one of Mr. Trump's companies. How did it all come about that you were fired by Donald Trump and then hired by his company? What exactly do you do there, and are you still working for them?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: I'm actually working with the Trump Network, and I was approached by them during the show, at the beginning of the show, and what I work on with them is [with the] Executive Director of the Trump Network, which is the multilevel marketing organization that Trump started. It's Trump products, and they range from beauty and health to wellness. I'm working with them in that organization with regards to sales and marketing.

USTH: To clarify, you were approached by them when the show started filming at the beginning?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: No, at the beginning when the show started airing.

USTH: Oh, okay.

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: So maybe about September.

USTH: In the boardroom segment, were you surprised by Steuart's comment that you should be the one fired and that Donald should not let you escape from the boardroom? Very dramatic.

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: No, I was not surprised by Steuart's comments because, of course, you always want to get rid of the competition, and Steuart knew that I was a true competitor. And actually, Steuart sent me an email this morning, wanting to add his comments. So no, I wasn't surprised. That's the name of the game – always get rid of your strongest competition first and so now, Steuart is probably glad that I'm gone because he's vying for that position.

USTH: Were you surprised that Brandy and Liza are the last two women standing?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: I'm not surprised that Brandy's the last – one of the last two remaining standing. I think Brandy's a very strong competitor, and she was from the beginning of the competition. I respect her because she always had a lot to contribute. I think she was very intelligent; she's very hands-on, she's not afraid to make decisions when she has to. But I am surprised that Liza's one of the final two remaining women because she's the complete opposite and did not contribute as much as everyone else did.

USTH: Have you become friends with any of the other contestants since filming wrapped on the show?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: Yes, I actually have become great friends with Brandy. I'm also good friends with Steuart and Clint and Anand and Gene and Mahsa, Tyana. So, there's a little group of us [who] are still good friends.

USTH: What do you take away from this experience overall, and would you do it all over again?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: It was a great experience, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. It was a good learning experience. I'm very rejuvenated and I'm very motivated. I'm excited to get to work and build my own brand now.

USTH: And what brand would that be?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: The Stephanie Castagnier brand. I'm obviously now a very popular banker here in Chicago, and I'm going to continue working in the banking arena, and I'm a mortgage lender, and so I'm going to continue doing that. I'm also going to continue to empower women in going on – I'm speaking across the country on women and financial freedom as a female and not relying on a man to build your own financial freedom.

USTH: You also have a foundation about teens coping with AIDS and substance abuse. Is that something you can talk to us a little bit about?

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: Yes, definitely. A big part of my life is the Child Cause/Fear to Fire nonprofit, which is a nonprofit I founded in 2007 and what we do is we inspire teens through the arts. So in 2011, I'm producing 120 music concerts across the U.S., and it's all about positive inspiration and raising teen drug [abuse prevention] awareness. So, I'm a very big teen drug [abuse prevention] advocate, and I definitely travel across the U.S. We have done this for many years, talking about my life and my experiences [both of Ms. Castagnier's parents passed away from AIDS when she was a teenager], and the importance of keeping teens inspired.

USTH: It sounds like you're very busy. Thank you very much for talking to us and much success in the future. I have a feeling you don't need our good luck, but good luck to you.

STEPHANIE CASTAGNIER: Thank you.

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 

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On Thursday, November 18, we spoke to Anand Vasudev, the tenth contestant fired by Donald Trump on the reality television series, The Apprentice.  It happened at the beginning of the November 11 episode under quite unique circumstances.   Anand was not fired because he lost a task or caused his team to lose a task.  Rather, he became the first contestant to be fired for violating the rules of the show – specifically, the rule against having contact with the outside world during the course of the contest.  The producers discovered that Anand had sent text messages to some of his friends during the pedicab task asking them to come down to the site, pretend they didn't know him, and get cab rides from his team.  When confronted about this, Anand denied having sent the text messages even when Mr. Trump said he had copies of them in his hands.  After Mr. Trump read the texts, Anand admitted to sending them and that he lied to Mr. Trump about it.  Anand was then fired from the show before the next task – designing a display for Kim Kardashian's new fragrance – was even given to the teams.

Here are the facts about Anand Vasudev from his NBC Apprentice bio: Anand Vasudev, 31 (Tampa, Fla.), worked for a very lucrative private firm managing several large multi-million dollar real estate investments. The successful Emory University graduate, whose past career accomplishments also include being the youngest person to be promoted to a senior role at a Fortune 500 company, thought he was "indispensable" to his firm because of the high level of expertise he had developed over the years. His eventual layoff came to him as a huge shock, yet was very motivating. In the face of adversity, Anand followed his dream and moved to New York City, where today he is a struggling entrepreneur trying to launch an innovative new vitamin-infused wine company, while still also looking to get involved in media and entertainment business. He is finding it rather difficult amidst today's economic environment and hasn't taken a salary in over a year. An avid sports fan, Vasudev currently resides in New York City.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO ANAND VASUDEV OF THE APPRENTICE 10:

USTH: Thank you for doing this interview. I imagine it can't be easy, but I have to ask what I guess is the most obvious question right off the bat, which is when you were in the boardroom and Mr. Trump specifically said to you that he knew you had sent text messages in violation of the rules of the show, and he basically had them to read, you kept denying it and then really encouraged him to read them to everyone in the room. I'm just wondering why you did that? It sounded like you were trying to bluff him when you knew you had sent the text messages. So, I'm just trying to understand why you pushed it that far.

ANAND VASUDEV: That's a great question, Scott.  Basically, what people don't realize when we filmed that boardrom [sequence], it was very, very early in the morning. It was about 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, and all of us – if you watch the episode, you can kind of see it on everyone's face. Everybody's exhausted. Everybody's worn out. When Mr. Trump turned to me and asked me if I had sent any text messages, I honestly – my mind had just not registered – at that point in time that early in the morning – I hadn't had my coffee yet. You know, when he asked me – obviously, the task [when the text messages were sent] was several episodes prior, and I had moved on. And, I obviously had been working on so many other tasks. I had so many other things going on in my mind that it didn't even occur to me. When I asked him – when he said, "Would you like me to read it," and then he read it, that's when the light bulb went off, and that's when I realized, "Oh, yes. You know what, I did send that text message." So you know, it wasn't so much that I was trying to bluff him; it was just one of those things that I just didn't realize until – it just hadn't registered for me. And then, once he read it, that's when I realized the mistake that I had made.

USTH: Do you know how the producers got ahold of those text messages? Did the person you sent them to betray you to the producers of the show?

ANAND VASUDEV: No. I don't think it was anything like that. Mr. Trump has eyes and ears everywhere, obviously. The production staff – they have all their bases covered. They somehow got ahold of it, and the rest is history.

USTH: When you initially did make the text messages, I guess it was during the pedicab task, did you confide to any of the other cast member? He asked a couple of them if they knew about it and they said no, but we didn't see him ask everybody. So, I'm just wondering, either the people that were in the boardroom or the people had gotten fired before you, did you tell anybody that you had made those text messages?

ANAND VASUDEV: No. I had not mentioned it to anybody because I really didn't think much of it. Rather than publicize the fact that I had sent a text message to one or two friends, I really didn't think that it was that big of a deal. I mean obviously in today's business world, if you're running a business, you're going to contact your friends, your family, all your colleagues, and you're going to try and drum up business.

In the real world, that's essentially what I was trying to do. Unfortunately, the fine print in all the rules state that you're not supposed to send any text messages. And when I did it, I really didn't think that it was going to be such a major deal that, I didn't really bother to tell anybody.

USTH: So when you were summoned to the boardroom, what did you think was going to happen – when it was that early in the morning, and you hadn't had your coffee, and you hadn't dressed properly – what did you guys think? You in particular, and the other contestants as you were talking to each other, what did you think was going to happen in the boardroom?

ANAND VASUDEV: Well, every time Mr. Trump calls us to speak to us early in the morning, it's usually to deliver a task, so we all thought that we were heading to Trump Tower and he was going to deliver our next task for the day. It wasn't until you know 15 to 20 minutes into the boardroom that we realized that it was something totally different.

USTH: When Poppy interviewed with us last week, she said that when you guys were waiting in the outer chamber, she heard Mr. Trump bellowing from the inside and she knew that something was up even before she walked in. Did you hear him yelling inside?

ANAND VASUDEV: I did not hear anything. I know that the two teams – we each have war rooms in Trump Tower, and the men's team and the women's team I believe, if I recall correctly, were separated at the time. I didn't hear anything, so I had no idea what was going on. Again, it was very early in the morning. I don't think I was clicking on all cylinders that early. I didn't hear anything. I had no idea what was going on when I – it wasn't until I was brought into the boardroom that it finally hit me.

USTH: Since you've done the show and filming has wrapped, have you reestablished relationships with any of the other cast members? Have you become friends with any of them outside the show?

ANAND VASUDEV: Yes. One of the beautiful things about this show is even though we're all competing against one another for the ultimate prize, it's such a unique experience that win or lose, you've developed a bond with the other 15 cast mates. I'm very proud to say that I'm very close with most of them. We all maintain contact almost daily whether it's through email or phone calls or even text messages, we all keep in touch, and we've all become good friends after it.

USTH: Now you know, I guess, that Poppy and David have established a relationship outside the show after filming. Obviously, her feelings about David have changed. Have your feelings about David changed, or do you still feel he's sort of a disruptive influence?

ANAND VASUDEV: I don't really have anything negative to say about anyone on the show. Obviously, with my experience with David working on the show – it was very difficult to work with David. I think David is a great guy. I think he's misunderstood a lot of times. I think the way he carries himself in his work environment is definitely different than the way I carry myself, so it would probably – it would be difficult if he and I were to ever try to work together. I just don't foresee it happening. But, if he ever wants to give me a call and hang out sometime, I'm always open to it. I wish him and Poppy the best.

USTH: Looking forward into the future, what are your career goals, and what are you working on right now that you could share with us?

ANAND VASUDEV: Well, obviously, after The Apprentice, my next – unfortunately, I didn't win The Apprentice, so my next career step is definitely going to be my biggest step in my career thus far. So for me, I'm really interviewing with a lot of companies right now. I was an ex-private equity finance guy, and since The Apprentice, I've developed a newfound interest in media and entertainment. I would love a job like yours Scott. Right now, I'm just interviewing around and definitely want to take my time and make the right decisions. In the meantime, I'm also working on – as an entrepreneur – I also have small business ideas that I've been working on as well. Hopefully, all goes well.

USTH: But you're staying in the New York area then?

ANAND VASUDEV: I am in the New York area. That's correct.

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

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