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How Hope Inspires Action · The World Knowledge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, good afternoon, listeners. Thank you for coming on to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Lament of Hope podcast. As you guys know, we always
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: have so many interesting guests. And by the time this
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: one comes out, we're nearing our 300th episode, which is
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: really exciting. But I'm talking today with Jennifer Goff, who
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is the founder of Skip the Line. And I came
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: across this business and I was just so intrigued. I mean...
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: That's a good question.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: No one's ever asked that before. It's a mix. Like
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: when I was doing it, I always felt really proud
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: that it was, you know, I was building the business
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and I had a client and I was able to
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: do this. And it does kind of teach you to
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: be a little more patient, especially in a culture where
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: we can get almost anything we want. But because I'm
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: also the provider of giving people what they want, especially
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: something where it can save time. It's interesting because, you know,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of times people are really, really, you know,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: grateful that we were able to wait, whether it was
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: because they couldn't make it there due to work or
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: whatever other obligations they have, family, this, this and that.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: So a lot of times I just felt really grateful
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: and they were really grateful that they could still do
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the activity they wanted to do and they didn't have
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to stress out about it. And so that's kind of
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: how I like to frame it. we're really helping people
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: not have to drive themselves crazy thinking about how am
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I going to get here to do this and all
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: of the logistics in between when I could just hire
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: somebody and they can do it and it's kind of
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: a peace of mind where they don't have to worry
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: But that must be stressful though for you at first
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and then for the people you hire because if you
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: don't get there in time or something happens, then.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: You know, the client will be upset because you didn't
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: make it or didn't whatever. And I would think too,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: like just the stress of like, if I have to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: get somewhere at four in the morning or be outside
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: of something at this time, how do you kind of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: gauge that for employees, even for yourself, like who would
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: be a good fit for this? Like this is high stress.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Cause I think it's not a high stress when you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: get there, but it's high stress to get there. Cause
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: you have these expectations that you want to fulfill and,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: How did you cope with that yourself? And then how
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: do your employees cope with that?
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we do a lot of research beforehand, myself included.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And I did a lot of the research to get
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the business going for the different venues where we wait.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So we do advise our clients, you know, if, if
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: they ask, well, I only want to wait two hours,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I'll say, you know, two hours, isn't going to be enough.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: We can certainly go down there and try it, but
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: we're recommending this time because we've been doing this for
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: so long. We're kind of experts. Um, and so based
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: on my, you know, what I advise people, and then
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I will tell my employees, there's not a lot of stress. Um,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: there might be stress, you know, um, If there are
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: outside variables that might affect it, like the weather, or
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: maybe the venue is changing the entry time, or maybe
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: there's something that's kind of out of our control. But
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: we always do a really great job of keeping our
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: clients updated to let them know, hey, we're in line.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: This is what the line looks like, your number, whatever,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: if we're able to tell that. Um, and then if
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: there are any challenges along the way, we will update them.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: But for the most part, we've had some, we've had
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: mostly successful stories. We usually don't have an issue where
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: someone can't get in or can't get what they want.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: And since you've started in 2017, if you're including when
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you were by yourself starting it, how many people do
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: you think you've waited in line for your company has?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, I would say, wow. Wow. I don't know,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: maybe 300 or so. It could be more. I should
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: actually keep better records and metrics of that because we
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: do have a lot of groups. Maybe it would be closer.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe it would be between 300 and 500.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: We did take a break during COVID because there were
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: no lines to wait in, so it would from like
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: summer of 2017 until, you know, early spring of 2020.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: And then the things that started opening back up was
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: closer to 2022. Um, cause they, a lot of, a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: lot of venues, I mean, there's a lot of venues
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: that change their whole, whole protocol. You know, there's restaurants
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that we used to wait in line for that no
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: longer offer that it's only reservations. Um, So there's, you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: there's definitely been a shift, but now that we're kind
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: of on the other side of everything, we're back to
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: being busy.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And do you, I know you mentioned that you couldn't
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: find a job. And I think this is frustrating even
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: just for people, you know, out of college, younger people
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: like me, like jobs are, so many people struggle to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: find a job where it's like, I love this, or
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: my passion is in this, where it's not, okay, I'm
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: making sure that I'm, you know, making the money I need.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: And that can just become so, I've talked to so
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: many people and it just gets so, you burn out
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and you're like, what's the point of doing this? So
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: does this job for you, like running this company, has
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it been able to provide for everything you've needed? Like
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: how long, and if so, how long did it take
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to get there? What did you do in the meantime?