Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.

If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.

If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter  or Bluesky for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.

Competition ends on 13th March 2025. The winner will be contacted via Bluesky.

Show references:

Website: https://www.crowdconvert.co.uk/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crowd-convert/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/crowdconvert.co.uk

Crowd Convert has been created to provide attractions with the tools and expertise to create world class digital interactions that extend their incredibly moving physical experiences into the digital world. Very simply Crowd Convert is here to Rehmanise Commerce

http://kellymolson.co.uk/

Kelly Molson - The Lifestyle Agency Advisor

Supporting overwhelmed solo founders who crave long-term sustainable growth, through monthly advisory. Define your niche. Generate leads. Build your pipeline. Founding Rubber Cheese, a lifestyle web development agency in 2003, she grew the agency profitably for over 20 years transforming our success in 2019 by establishing it as the leading web design agency in the visitor attraction sector. She sold the business in 2024, and now support founders building specialist lifestyle agencies to find their own path – agency growth on their terms.

• Gain clarity on direction, mission and positioning to win the right clients
• Become confident in increasing prices and saying no to ‘stuff’ that sucks time and energy
• Feel the excitement of building strategic partnerships that deliver your dream clientsBuild an agency on your terms, choosing profitability over pressure, putting life before work.

Transcription:

Kelly Molson: Well, look who is back. They've let me loose with the microphone again. I might never leave. 

Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in and working with visitor attractions. 

Kelly Molson: Can I just say that you pretty much called me a queen just before we began recording this, and I think I wear that crown appropriately today. 

Andy Povey: Podcast royalty. 

Kelly Molson: She is back where she belongs in her rightful place on her throne with her microphone. Wow. Thank you. You two have been cooking up something interesting, and I am back here to tease it out of you both today. But because I am in charge again, I get to do things my way, which means Icebreakers are back on the cards. Yay. 

Kelly Molson: I'm so happy to be back here doing this. Right? 

Paul Marden: I've never done one of these. This is so. In all of the time. I know. 

Andy Povey: So I've got something over you now, Paul. 

Kelly Molson: I can't believe this. Even when we did the sessions that were us two, the episodes that were us two. 

Paul Marden: You didn't ask me icebreakers. I am dodged that bullet for two and a half years. 

Kelly Molson:  That's outrageous. Okay, well, then we'll start with you. I would like to know who's your favourite podcast host? Why is it me? 

Paul Marden: Wow. 

Kelly Molson:  No. Genuine question. Genuine question. Okay, so, I mean, obviously it is me. We could put that aside. 

Paul Marden: Yeah, yeah. So put a pin in that one. 

Kelly Molson: Put a pin in that. So listen there, I have seen in the last. Well, since we started Skip the Queue back in 2019. Goodness, July 2019, there's been lots of different sector podcasts that have kind of popped up, and they are brilliant. And I'm all for more and more niche podcasts. They are the best kind of podcast. But I want to know, aside from Skip the Queue, what is your second favourite sector podcast? 

Paul Marden: Oh, oh. Attraction Pros is the one for me. I do like listening to the guys at AttractionPros. 

Kelly Molson: They are good. They were around before Skip the Queue. So they're like. For me, they're the ones that we are looking up to in terms of the podcast. 

Paul Marden: We were. 

Kelly Molson: Oh, oh, Podcast Beef. Josh is gonna hear this. He's not going to be happy. Andy, same question to you. What other podcasts you listen to sector wise? 

Andy Povey: So, I mean, that's a really difficult question because. Well, it's not. The answer's none. I don't listen to sector podcasts very much. I become a politics junkie, or I've been a politics junkie for years. 

Kelly Molson: Okay.

Andy Povey: So my podcasts are just full of politics podcast, which in the past two weeks I've stopped listening to. I've turned off completely because the world of politics is just such a mess.

Kelly Molson: It's a car crash.

Andy Povey: Within two minutes of having been published. 

Kelly Molson: What would be normally your go to, like, the regular one that you would listen to? 

Andy Povey: Me being a reluctant remainer. It's all the stuff that hangs over from that. So there's. Oh, God, what now? Quiet riot. The two. Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart. I can't remember what that one's called right now. 

Paul Marden: The rest is politics. 

Kelly Molson: Rest is politics. Yeah, cool. 

Paul Marden: What about the one with Ed Balls and George Osborne? 

Andy Povey: I tried it and haven't really got into it. 

Paul Marden: Yeah. So I'm the opposite way around. So that's the one I like. And I don't like Rest is politics. And I turned out that actually George Osborne is a human being and I quite like the guy. I'd go for a drink with him. Who knew? 

Kelly Molson: This is no news. 

Paul Marden: Yeah. 

Kelly Molson: I wonder if he'd like to go for a drink with you. 

Paul Marden: Probably no.

Andy Povey: I'm sure he'll be delighted to hear that when he listens to this. 

Paul Marden: When these politicians, when they give up their day job and they return to normal life and then you hear them on programmes, they're actually quite relatable and you think, why could you not capture that relatability when you were actually doing the job? 

Andy Povey: Well, it's actually a key part of the job, isn't it? It's the only thing you need to be good at as a politician. 

Kelly Molson: You would think, “Oh, could I could make a good politician then?” I'm just generally nice to people. 

Andy Povey: Absolutely. What would be your policies, Kelly? What would you do? What would you bring in? 

Kelly Molson: Oh, new policies. Oh, well, that's a very good question. I have one about mobile phones and people walking and looking at them at the same time, which I would ban because I generally just want to kick people. 

Kelly Molson: You know when you, like on the tube and you've got to get somewhere and you've just got people walking up the stairs in front of you, like, whilst looking at their phone, like, I want to swipe their legs away. So something around that they would be useful. It would make me happy anyway. 

Andy Povey: Absolutely. 

Kelly Molson: Make some other people happy, too. Who knows? Good. Okay. Glad that went there. Second question. This is a good one. It's coming up to. Well, I mean, it's already started, isn't it? Conference season has kicked in well and truly. You're at NFAN. That's really the start of it. I am going to be at the Association for Cultural Enterprise Conference in March. So looking forward to seeing everybody. I'm going to be at the awards do as well. I've been judging the awards. 

Paul Marden: Have you really? 

Kelly Molson: Yes, there was a lot in my category, I'm not going to lie. That took a lot longer than I was expecting it, but it was really fun. And the short list of finalists is out now if you haven't seen it. And it's an amazing list. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing who the winners are. But I would like to know what is the worst food you've ever been served at a conference? Because let's face it, can be a bit dodge, can't it? 

Andy Povey: So this sticks in my mind. It was an a