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Stories of Ordinary Heroes · 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.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so at the beginning, it was not enough. Um,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: and you know, I was searching for jobs. I, again,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I was, it wasn't sure what I wanted to do
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  Speaker 2: after returning from traveling. Um, and I could have always,
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  Speaker 2: you know, gotten a job in a restaurant, waiting tables.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I've done that in the past. It just, I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: there was just something inside me that was pulling me
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  Speaker 2: in a different direction. But while I was getting the
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: company started, I did a lot of, um, you know,
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  Speaker 2: gig work myself. Um, I would, you know, help a
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: friend on their food truck, serving food, um, different events
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: where maybe they needed like an extra person to kind
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: of help with X, Y, and Z. I would do that. Um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, there was a lot of little things that
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  Speaker 2: I would have to do in order to stay afloat.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: And then once we really got it going, and then
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  Speaker 2: especially during and post COVID, when we introduced other services,
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  Speaker 2: that's where I really started to be able to finally
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  Speaker 2: provide for myself full time.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Can you talk about the other services that you
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: do alongside that? Yep.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So, um, you know, obviously COVID shut everything down. There
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  Speaker 2: were no lines. I quickly pivoted to a delivery service. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: that was what was most in need at the time.
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  Speaker 2: You know, people couldn't get their groceries on time. It
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: was taking weeks. Um, we worked with a lot of, uh, local,
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  Speaker 2: our local clients to get the word out about grocery shopping,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: grocery delivery. And to be their delivery partner because some
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: of the third-party apps were still charging restaurants fees to
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: use them, which was very hard on them at the time.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: We didn't charge any fees. We did charge more fees
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: to the customer, but we worked with a lot of
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  Speaker 2: restaurants to be able to deliver farther. If you live
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  Speaker 2: maybe outside of the delivery range, I don't even know
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  Speaker 2: if that exists anymore with Uber Eats. But at the
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  Speaker 2: time there was, you know, like a range where, okay, you're,
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  Speaker 2: you know, 10 miles instead of five miles. So you
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  Speaker 2: can't get this food. And so that kept us extremely busy.
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  Speaker 2: We would help people, you know, with medication pickups at
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  Speaker 2: the pharmacy, other items at the store that they might've
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  Speaker 2: pre-ordered and they needed up and delivered. Especially because, you know,
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  Speaker 2: during that time, even if maybe you were okay with
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the virus, you, you, you didn't have the transportation wasn't
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  Speaker 2: there and up and running like it was previously for
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  Speaker 2: you to be able to go across town and get
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  Speaker 2: something that you need so we were there to provide
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: that which was really great and we really valued working
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: with the local community to be able to help people
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  Speaker 2: and help restaurants and help other shops um and then
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  Speaker 2: from there we actually um we actually developed our personal
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  Speaker 2: assistant services, which when I worked in real estate, I
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  Speaker 2: also was a personal and executive assistant. And so this
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  Speaker 2: felt like a good time to introduce those services because
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  Speaker 2: people would say, Hey, if you can get my groceries,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: could you get my dry cleaning? Could you get my,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: you know, take my dog to the groomer. And so
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: we rolled those out and that was actually, that service
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: took a little longer. Cause when you're working with people
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  Speaker 2: on such a personal level, you know, it's not going
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: to be as transactional as hiring us to wait in
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  Speaker 2: line or deliver food. But that's what I've been focusing
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  Speaker 2: on for the last maybe five years now, four or
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: five years to really, really roll that out and make
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  Speaker 2: it a very personable, customized service for our customers. And
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  Speaker 2: it's all under, all three services are under the umbrella
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  Speaker 2: of saving people time, which is our mission.
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  Speaker 1: So if, so personal assistant, we're talking about more of
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: if you were a personal assistant for someone with your business,
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  Speaker 1: is that being like 16 hours of the day, you're
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  Speaker 1: like doing whatever this individual may need or grabbing the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: things they may need? What is, because when I think
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: personal assistant, usually that means like, you know, that eight
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to five or nine to five individual at the desk
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: who's scheduling or doing the extra things that the executive
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: or whoever they're working for needs them to do. But
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  Speaker 1: this sounds more like personal assistant. Are we talking more
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  Speaker 1: just like Any pick up the kids, make some food
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  Speaker 1: if they need or grab the dry cleaning or clean
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  Speaker 1: the house? Is it like just a mixture of tons
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  Speaker 1: of different things?
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  Speaker 2: It is a mixture. There are certain things we don't do.
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  Speaker 2: So we don't... We don't transport individuals. So if your
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  Speaker 2: kids needed a ride or if you needed a ride,
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  Speaker 2: we would refer you to a service that provides that.
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  Speaker 2: Same with cleaning. We don't have house cleaners on staff,
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  Speaker 2: but we work with a lot of cleaners that we
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  Speaker 2: can refer you to. But We might do things like errands,
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  Speaker 2: dry cleaning, pickup, returning packages. You know, if you buy
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  Speaker 2: a lot of things online and you need them returned
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  Speaker 2: to UPS or Amazon, wherever, we do a lot of that.
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  Speaker 2: Picking up different items from the store if that store
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  Speaker 2: doesn't provide delivery. And then we also do a lot
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  Speaker 2: of virtual tasks. So calendar management, scheduling, making doctor's appointments,
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  Speaker 2: doing research. Maybe you need help with planning a vacation,
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  Speaker 2: planning a holiday event. So we do a lot of
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  Speaker 2: that stuff for people. And people, you know, some people
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  Speaker 2: are very creative. They know exactly what they want. They're
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  Speaker 2: very busy. They're like, hey, this is my list for you.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, okay, we can help with this.
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  Speaker 2: And if it's something we can't, we do have outside
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  Speaker 2: vendors that we put them in touch with. Like, for instance,
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  Speaker 2: if they need something assembled, like furniture, we have someone
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  Speaker 2: that we can refer to do that job. So it
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: just kind of depends. We do on-site stuff at people's houses.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: We've helped with holiday decorating, dinner parties, all sorts of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So, and you no longer, do you do any of
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  Speaker 1: these or you have employees now that do all of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: these tasks?