Kelly’s final episode

 In this Skip the Queue podcast episode, I’m joined by my co-host Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese, as well as a group of returning guests of the podcast.

“I’ve always hoped this podcast. It’s not about me. It won’t be about Paul. It will be about all the guests that come on and still continue to come on and talk to us about their stories and their challenges and their initiatives and all the brilliant things that they do. And I hope that I have gone above and beyond in making other people feel important. And I hope I’ve been sincere in doing that as well because it is all about you. You all make this podcast amazing and I genuinely am so grateful that you’ve allowed me into your ears and allowed me to share everybody else’s stories in a really fun way. So thank you.”

Kelly Molson is the Founder of Rubber Cheese, a user focused web design and development agency for the attraction sector. Digital partners to Eureka! The National Children’s Museum, Pensthorpe, National Parks UK, Holkham, Visit Cambridge and The National Marine Aquarium.Kelly regularly delivers workshops and presentations on sector focused topics at national conferences and attraction sector organisations including ASVA, ALVA, The Ticketing Professionals Conference and the Museum + Heritage Show.

As host of the popular Skip the Queue Podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions, she speaks with inspiring industry experts who share their knowledge of what really makes an attraction successful. Recent trustee of The Museum of the Broads.

What will you learn from this podcast?

✅ We’ll be turning the tables on Kelly as the guests ask her the ice breaker questions

✅ We’ll also be looking back at the impact the podcast has had, as some of our guests share their experiences of appearing on the podcast

To listen to the full podcast, search Skip The Queue on iTunes, Google Podcasts and Spotify to subscribe. You can find links to every episode and more at www.rubbercheese.com/podcast.

You can also read the full transcript below.

The interview

Your hosts, Kelly Molson and Paul Marden

Our guests, Paul Wright, Andy Povey, Bernard Donoghue, David Hingley, Paul Griffiths, Ross Ballinger, Danielle Nicholls, Rachel Mackay, Sophie Ballinger, Elizabeth McKay, Simon Addison and Dominic Jones

Paul Marden: So, how you doing?

Kelly Molson: I feel slightly. I feel slightly apprehensive. You just said, like, are you ready? Have you got your tissues ready? Like I have. I’m prepared.

Paul Marden: Good. So, listeners, today is a big episode, as well as being on 99th episode is also Kelly’s last episode as the Skip the Queue host. Yeah. So many of you will know that after 21 years heading up Rubber Cheese, Kelly has decided to spread her wings and move on to pastures new. 

And while this is news from many of the listeners, I’ve had a few months to prepare for this. So I’ve been thinking long and hard about this episode of what can I do? And I thought it’d be nice to look back at some of your best bits, but I didn’t feel like I should do that on my own. I actually thought the best way of looking back at your best bits are to bring your best bits back to us. So I’m just gonna admit a load of people that want to join the edge.

Kelly Molson: Oh, no.

Paul Marden: So we have got a host of po face and audience members that are going to join us today.

Kelly Molson: I’m going to cry already.

Paul Marden: Excellent. I’ve done my job to start with straight away, so everyone’s joined us for a virtual leaving party. So I hope you’ve got your whatsits in a bowl and your cheese and pineapple ready for you as we look back over some of your best bits and enjoy a Skip the Queue episode at its best. And so, for those of you that are listening and not watching, first of all, where have you been? These aren’t facestrail radio. You should be subscribing on YouTube and watch these lovely people. But if you’re listening, let me introduce you to the host of people that are joining us. We’ve got Andy Povey from Convious. We’ve got Bernard Donoghue from ALVA. We’ve got David Hingley from BOP Consulting. We’ve got Rachel Mackay from Hampton Court Palace. Sophie Ballinger from Eureka!

Kelly Molson: You’re supposed to be on holiday.

Paul Marden: Sophie from Eureka! The National Children’s Museum. We’ve got Ross Ballinger from Drayton Manor. We’ve got Dominic Jones from the Mary Rose. And we’ve also been joined by some of your lovely Rubber Cheese colleagues that wanted to say hi and goodbye.

Kelly Molson: Look at everyone’s beautiful faces. Oh, God.

Paul Marden: And the tissues are going already.

Kelly Molson: Do you know what? Just before I came on, I was like, I’m not going to cry. I am completely in control of today. If it was yesterday, I would have cried, but I’m completely in control today. I am not in control at all.

Paul Marden: So, long time listeners will know that we always start off with an icebreaker question. And Kelly never tells the guests what the icebreaker question is in advance. So I’m afraid, Kelly, it’s your turn. Bernard, you’re going to kick off for us today. Would you like to ask Kelly your icebreaker question? 

Bernard Donoghue: Thank you. Claudia Winkleman. I’m delighted to join this episode of The Traitors. 

Paul Marden: Have you got the fringe to be Claudia? I’m sorry.

Kelly Molson: No, we have not.

Bernard Donoghue: Kelly, it’s World Book Day tomorrow. You’ve received short notice. What book do you go as to work, please?

Kelly Molson: Oh, I would. I’d have to take one of my daughter’s books. So she has got this book called Oh, no, George. And it’s about an incredibly naughty dog with. He’s a ginger dog with a very long nose. I would have to dress up as George because he doesn’t do himself any favours. He hopes that he’s going to be good, but he’s just. He can’t cope with being good and he eats all the cake and he knocks over all the tulips in the house and he’s incredibly lovable, but incredibly naughty. So definitely George. That’s me. Right.

Bernard Donoghue: It’s a lovely insight into your personality. 

Paul Marden: Perfect. 

Kelly Molson: Great question. 

Paul Marden: It is a great question. I hope you’re ready for a few more because we’ve got some of these lined up for you. So the next. The next person that’s going to join us, unfortunately couldn’t be here today, so they sent me a little message that we’ll play now.

Paul Wright: Hi, Kelly. Remember me? It’s Wag here.

Kelly Molson: This is my old co founder.

Paul Wright: My question to you. If every time someone clicked on a website and it made a sound. What noise would you want it to make?

Kelly Molson: Oh, it has to be a big old fart noise, right? A real big wet one, like a whoopee cushion. Fart noise, please. Thank you.

Paul Marden: So, Mrs. Marden, over breakfast this morning, as were talking through what I was going to talk about, said, oh, she’s just going to say wet fart, surely.

Kelly Molson: Absolutely.

Paul Marden:  She knows you so well.

Kelly Molson: She’s my level.

Paul Marden:  Completely. Next up, we’ve got Mr. Andy Povey. 

Andy Povey: Hi, Kelly. It’s been a while. So I’m very pleased to be here, but not for the reason that we are all there for. We spend a lot of time on the road, travelling around for our jobs. So my question is, what’s your favourite motorway service station and why?

Kelly Molson: I tell you what, Peterborough motorway service station. Because I know that I’m probably an hour from home then, so I’m nearly home. I’ve had a good few coffees in Peterborough service station.

Andy Povey: I’ve not tried that one, I must admit.

Kelly Molson: I mean, I don’t know if it’s up there with, like, the best, but, you know, I just. I know that I’m going to be home soon.

Paul Marden: Bit depressing that the favourite motorway service is the one that’s closest to home for you. Thank you, Andy. Next up, so here’s a surprise. Danielle Nicholls from Alton Towers, you’ve managed to join us.

Danielle Nicholls: So my question to you, Kelly, is you’ve worked with a lot of attractions and theme parks over the years, but which is your favourite theme park attraction or ride that you’ve ever been on?

Kelly Molson: This is not a good question to ask, is it? Because I’m going to upset people. 

Danielle Nicholls: You can be diplomatic about it. 

Kelly Molson: My favourite ride, definitely not those ones that swing and literally make you one of them. My favourite ride. It’s really hard. Yeah, it’s really hard. Well, I was just trying to think of, like, where do I go with this? But I’m going to go with the one. It was mine and my dad’s favourite when I was a kid and it doesn’t exist anymore, which is really sad, but it’s the Back to the Future ride at Universal.

Which was absolutely epic and I can remember years ago queuing up like four times on the trot to go on it with my dad and he just. It was just brilliant. Absolutely absolute. I mean, I love that. I love eighties music movies. Yeah. My genre, anyway, but, yeah, that ride was absolutely incredible. Oh, that’s amazing. 

Danielle Nicholls: I never got to do that one so very jealous. 

Kelly Molson: Good memories.

Paul Marden: Paul Griffiths, can you take the floor and give Kelly a grilling? 

Paul Griffiths: Of course. Hi, Kelly. Good to see you. And good to see everyone else. We know that you love picking up souvenirs and knickknacks on your travels, particularly attractions. So what is your favourite souvenir you’ve taken away from one of your best tourist attractions?

Kelly Molson: I’ve got them all here. Look at them. I’ve got my bounty on my desk.

Paul Griffiths:  The show and tell answer then, isn’t it?

Kelly Molson: Look, I’ve got. Yeah. Okay. What’s my favourite one, though?

Paul Marden: For listeners, hey can’t see you picking up a dodgy eighties ice cream box.

Kelly Molson: This is my ‘80s. It’s a Bijam economy vanilla ice cream tub, which my parents were obviously really keen on feeding us well as a child. But in it are, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of rubbers that I’ve collected from different places and attractions over the years. And they smell. I wish this was smellyvision because they absolutely smell divine. There’s so many in here. But I think, again, this is. And this is for memories. I’m going to go with this one and it’s really old. This is my Thorpe Park rubber.

Paul Griffiths:  Very classic.

Kelly Molson: Isn’t it great? So it’s got the Thorpe park rabbit on it. Rangers. 

Danielle Nicholls: Is it the Thorpe Park Rangers? 

Kelly Molson: Yeah. Yeah. Thorpe Park Ranger. Yeah. Thorpe Park. So that was, again, that was probably the closest attraction to the closest theme park to me as a kid, and we used to go there a lot and, like, my uncle used to take me there in the summer holidays. The whole family used to go. So that one has got really good memories. That’s a great question, Paul. There’s so many in here, though, that I could have chosen.

Paul Griffiths:  I didn’t age to have them all to hand, though. 

Kelly Molson: That sat on my desk.

Paul Marden: So I promised you that we would try and faithfully stick to the format once you hand the Batman to me. So I’m going to give you a breather from being grilled by everybody. What was your unpopular opinion that you wanted to share with everybody?

Kelly Molson: Peas. Peas. Peas are the food of the devil. Peas taint everything that they touch. Sometimes. Nobody tells you that there’s peas in stuff on the menu as well. Like, I love a fish pie. Fish pie is delicious. When you open up a fish pie and someone’s gone. No, we’ll just throw a few handful of peas in there just for a laugh. That’s not fun. You can pick them out of stuff, but you can taste them in absolutely everything that they are in.

Paul Marden: That’s not an unpopular opinion, that’s just. That’s just a fact. I don’t know how everybody else feels about peas, but I’m a pea hater as well.

Sophie Ballinger:  Oh, what about cheesy peas?

Kelly Molson: No, cheesy peas. Even cheese would not make peas taste appealing to me.

Dominic Jones: Wasabi peas?

Kelly Molson: No. 

Danielle Nicholls:  Minty peas? 

Kelly Molson: No peas. I like beans. Beans are okay. And like edamame beans, which I like peas. But not peas. It’s just a very distinct difference.

Bernard Donoghue: Nurse. Nurse. She’s out of bed again.

Sophie Ballinger:  Where do you stand on mushy peas? 

Kelly Molson: Oh, so far from mushy peas. I did have to cook them once for Lee’s old granddad. Oh, God. No.

Paul Marden: Guacamole as. Who was it? It was one of the politicians and labour politics. 

Andy Povey: Peter Mandelson. 

Paul Marden: There we go. Peter Mandelson went into a fish and chip shop and asked to have guacamole with his fish and chips and it turned out was mushy peas.

Kelly Molson: I’d eat guacamole with my chips. That’s fine.

Paul Marden: So should we go back to grilling you on some.

Kelly Molson: This whole episode is just awkward questions for me. Is it great?

Paul Marden: You’ve done this to everybody for 99 episodes. It’s your turn to take one. Rachel Mackay from Hampton Court Palace, welcome.

Rachel Mackay: Oh, hello. I’ve decided to go against the grade. I’m not going to ask your revision question because I know you’ll just stare blankly at me anyway, so I’m going to go more general. What is your preference, running shoes or dancing shoes? 

Kelly Molson: Oh, dancing shoes. Dancing shoes all the way. I really miss dancing. You don’t get to dance enough when you get older. Dancing is the one thing that I used to really love doing with my friends. 

Rachel Mackay: I thought you would say dancing shoes because also it gives you a bit of a heel.

Kelly Molson: Which I need. No, you’re absolutely right.

Paul Marden: So the dancing. You’ll be able to get them back out again soon because, what, Eddie’s two now? Two and a bit. It will soon be birthday party season, where you’ll be doing the hokey cokey and you’ll be doing the conga.

Kelly Molson: And she’s already got all my moves. She’s already got all my moves. Yeah, she’s in the dancing zone.

Paul Marden: Excellent. Next up, we’ve got somebody else that couldn’t join us today, so they’ve sent us another little video to share with you. So this is Simon Addison from the Roman Baths and number two in the hour, top ten paid attractions outside London. And I say, sorry, Dominic.

Dominic Jones: He deserves it. He’s a great guy. And so is the Roman Baths.

Paul Marden: Exactly. You haven’t heard what he says yet.

Simon Addison: Hey, Kelly, it’s Simon Addison here from the Roman Baths. I’m really sorry that I couldn’t be with you for the recording today. Before I ask you my ice breaker question, I just wanted to tell you about the impact that skip the queue is having, not just on those people who work in visitor attractions, but those who visit them too. Last month, I was walking around the National Portrait Gallery with Dominic Jones and a visitor genuinely pulled him over and asked him if he was the Dominic Jones from Skip the Queue. Kelly, you have created an absolute monster there.

Kelly Molson: I love this.

Dominic Jones: That is actually true. It actually happened. We were a bit bemused by it and were worried that someone had set this visitor up, but they genuinely wanted a Korean visitor attractions and had listened to it and I’d obviously said my name a bit too loud to Simon and they came up and asked for a picture. It was completely random, but brilliant.

Paul Marden: I’m a little bit heartbroken because I actually genuinely thought they spotted the face and knew you from the YouTube.

Dominic Jones: I think it was the voice, but, yeah, no, it was brilliant. It’s all because of Skip the Queue, which is Simon’s rise had a massive impact on everyone in our industry and actually people who want to join our industry. So you should be really proud. And hopefully that’s the last random stranger that stopped me. But it was fantastic.

Kelly Molson: Do you know what? I do feel really proud of that.

Paul Marden: So, Simon’s question.

Simon Addison: Kelly, my icebreaker question for you is what is the weirdest piece of advice that you’ve ever received? And did you follow it? Thanks very much, Kelly, and thanks for everything. Thanks for all the episodes over the years and I wish you the very best of luck with everything.

Kelly Molson: I’m trying to think what has been. Do you know, I have been given some advice about public speaking before, which I thought was quite strange. I used to really. I used to get really anxious about public speaking. It wasn’t something that was massively comfortable for me. And I had loads of coaching from a really good friend of mine, Andy Loparta. And I don’t know if it was Andy. I don’t think this was Andy that gave me this advice.

I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been. But someone told me that if you go on stage and you clench your butt cheeks, you can’t actually clench anything else. At the same time. And I’m like. I am, though. I’m clenching my butt cheeks now and I’m clenching my teeth so you can. But that’s always stuck in my head. So I definitely tried it, but I don’t know that it helped with my speaking whatsoever. I’m doing it now. Is everyone. Is everyone doing it now? Is everyone trying it? Everyone’s doing it.

Paul Marden: Standing desk practicing it right now.

Sophie Ballinger: Yeah. Start bobbing up and down in my seat. You’ll know why. 

Kelly Molson: There you go.

Paul Marden: Lovely segue. Sophie Ballinger from Eureka. Why don’t you ask Kelly your icebreaker?

Kelly Molson: Hello, duck. 

Sophie Ballinger: Hello, duck. Hey, I’ve got a bit of a random one. I think I might have. It might have been asked you this in the agency interview many years ago, but I’m not sure because it’s one of my favourites. Who would win in a fight between a badger and a baboon? 

Kelly Molson: I don’t remember you asking me this. 

Sophie Ballinger: Should have done.

Kelly Molson: Badger. I think Badger. Badgers are quite vicious, aren’t they? You think the boots. Everyone’s shaking their head. Oh, I think badger. I’ve never seen a live badger either, but I know that they’re quite vicious.

Paul Marden: We went into South Africa a few years ago and we stopped because we saw a troop of baboons on the side of the road and there were other people watching. So everybody got out their cars and they all stood around. All of a sudden, this alpha male baboon just crosses the road to the car behind us, opens the back door, gets into the woman’s handbag when he’s rifling through trying to find chocolate and she’s sat in the front seat going absolutely crazy. So I promise you it’ll be the baboon. So next up, we’ve got another video. Joining us this time it is Elizabeth McKay, CEO of the London Transport Museum.

Elizabeth McKay: Hi, Kelly. You were the nicest interviewer I ever had. So my question for you is equally nice, I hope. So, when you’re getting around London, what’s your favourite mode of travel? Is it tube, bus or cycle? 

Kelly Molson: Oh, I actually prefer to walk, so neither of the above. I know. Sorry. I’m sorry. I like. So I have to get the train in. So my train is the Liverpool street line. So I tend to get off. You know, I go. I’ll go to Liverpool street and then I quite like to walk places. I do like the tube. Not gonna dis the tube, especially not to Elizabeth. But I quite like the opportunity to go and see stuff. And I think walking around London, everything feels everything so close together. So it’s nice to be able to just walk and see things that you wouldn’t normally see.

Bernard Donoghue: Can I just point out that I’ve seen Kelly getting out of a disco rickshaw at least three times in the last week.

Kelly Molson: Fake news. Fake news.

Paul Marden: Now, Kelly, you did say to me that you had a few thank you messages that you wanted to share with people. So do you want to just have a couple of minutes to thank some people?

Kelly Molson: Yes, I would. I would like to thank everybody because people have always been so incredibly generous with their time for me, and I’m always so grateful of that. You’re generous to come on and talk to me. You’re generous to come on and answer my ridiculous questions, but generous to share all your insight and knowledge. And I think especially through the pandemic, that meant an incredible amount to me and hopefully to our listeners as well. It really felt like people were coming on and sharing kind of a real time. This is where we’re at. This is what’s happening, and this is what we’re doing about it. Experience. And it was amazing.

The pandemic was incredibly difficult for everybody, but for me, the highlight was knowing that I was getting to speak to so many different people and being able to share that with other people as well. And it made it a really special time for me. So thank you for everybody that has ever come on the podcast and answered my stupid questions and shared all of their stuff with me. Thank you. Thank you to all of the listeners. I genuinely could not have imagined. I could not have imagined how well this podcast would go. I honestly can remember the day that I came in, I was like, “We should definitely do this podcast. I’ve been looking. I don’t think there’s anything like it. We should do it.” And my team going, “Yeah, how do we do it? I don’t know. Let’s just do it, though.”

And this is what happens. I come up with these crazy ideas, and I’m the driver of them, but it’s all the people around me that actually make the magic happen. And that is. That’s for the podcast, that’s for the survey, the report, the agency itself. All I’ve done is just kind of drag it along and share it with people. It’s all the other people behind the scenes that do it. Steve works his magic every single episode. He really does. He cuts out a lot of swearing. The very professional introductions that I record separately to the interviews. Jesus. The amount of swearing that he has to cut out on those is ridiculous. So well done, Steve, mate, you deserve that award winning podcast editor title just for this. And Wenalyn. So Wenalyn down here waving. 

I mean, she really is the powerhouse behind the podcast because I’ll get you to come on. We’ll have a lovely chat. It goes over to Steve for the editor, and it comes back to, well, and she does everything. She does everything. She creates all the graphics. She uploads everything to the, you know, the website, she does the transcriptions, she creates, does all the podcasts, all the scheduling, all of the. All of it. So, you know, she really does do all the hard grunt work behind it. So thank you, Wenalyn. It’s been such a lovely. It’s been lovely to work with you over the years. Thank you.

Paul Marden: Wenalyn wins the award for the longest distance journey into the meeting today because Wenalyn is over in the Philippines. Wenalyn wins this award in every single meeting that we have. So she does.

Kelly Molson: She does. There is one more. Thank you. I wanna make, which is to the unsung hero of Skip the Queue. So it’s for an old team member of mine, Ashley Mays, because if it wasn’t for her, actually, there probably wouldn’t be a Skip the Queue. She made this happen, really. Not only did she come up with the name, but she actually got one of our first guests to agree to come onto the podcast. Because I can’t tell you how difficult that first season was. If you’ve ever gone back, it actually launched in July 2019. This podcast, myself and my co founder, Wag, who asked the ridiculous question I answered with a fart earlier. We both used to interview guests, but if you’ve ever tried to get someone to come onto a podcast and they go, great. Yeah.

How many listeners and downloads have you got? You’re like, none. Absolutely none. No listeners. You are our first guest. Please help us make something magic. That was quite a hard sell. Ashley had a family member who agreed to come onto the podcast, and it was actually Lynne Whitnall, who is the director of Paradise Wildlife Park, which is now Hertfordshire Zoo. She was the biggest name that we could have possibly hoped for in that first series. So really, that was the kind of catalyst for all of the other amazing guests that have come on since. 2019 was a really tough year for Rubber Cheese, and I had to let Ashley go at the end of 2019, and I’ll tell you now, that was the single worst thing that I’ve ever had to do in my whole career as an agency owner, because she was brilliant.

And I felt like I’d failed her at that time. So I really wanted to make sure that she got a big thank you. She’s gone on and done brilliant things. Don’t get me wrong, brilliant people always do. But that was genuinely the toughest thing that I’ve ever had to do. And it’s probably my biggest regret of running the agency all of these years as well. So, yeah, big shout out to Ashley. She made a big difference.

Paul Marden: Every agency owner enjoys the fun bits, the launches, the winning new business. Nobody enjoys that bit. But it is this life, isn’t it? So, yeah, it was a tough time for everybody, wasn’t it? And you said that Ashley came up with the name as well, didn’t she?

Kelly Molson: She did, yeah. Skip the Queue was all Ashley. I take no credit for that whatsoever.

Paul Marden: Amazing.

Danielle Nicholls: What a moment that was. That was really touching. 

Kelly Molson: Thank you.

Paul Marden: Keep it together, mate. You’ve still got a few minutes to go.

Kelly Molson: Okay.

Paul Marden: So let’s segue for some light relief to Ross Ballinger from Drayton Manor.

Kelly Molson: Now, I’m not gonna lie, I’m really apprehensive about this. Ross. 

Ross Ballinger: Hello, lovely. 

Kelly Molson: Hi, Ross.

Ross Ballinger: It’s so nice to see and hear you. I feel like.

Kelly Molson: Likewise, mate.

Ross Ballinger: I’ve only known you, like, a short space of time but you were such a champion for me and Danielle when you spotted us at the UK Theme Park Award a few years ago.

Danielle Nicholls: Really.

Ross Ballinger: And we’re just so grateful for that. You spotted our passion and our energy for the industry and obviously we just gravitated toward each other. Anything you’ve done for all the other professionals in the industry as well. That is a true testament to everything that you’ve done. It’s all paid off and everyone loves you and thank you so much for everything on Skip the Queue.

Kelly Molson: Oh, mate.

Ross Ballinger: No, honestly, I think that was probably one of the best years I ever had in the industry, really, because it, like, it did stem up a couple of things did, like, fall out at the back of it because it got. It got me a little bit of 15 minutes of fame that I really enjoyed. And then I managed to do some presentations with different things and owe credit to you, really, for just, like, putting us in the limelight for a little bit. 

Kelly Molson: I’m so pleased. I’m so pleased. I just want to tell the story because I met the two of you at the UK theme park awards. It was at Drayton Manor, wasn’t it? And these guys are on the table behind me and I’ve never had such enthusiasm. You two were the light, I mean, that. It was a bit of a. It was a bit of a. It was a. It was a tough crowd, wasn’t it? Everyone was quite subdued in there, but used to, like, “Yes,” shouting and just.

Danielle Nicholls: Basically every time anyone won, even if it was like, Pleasure Beach or being anyone. We were like, “Yeah, go guys.”

Ross Ballinger: We were wooing everybody.

Kelly Molson: What awards should be like. Like, you two were like the Persona of an awards day. It was. It was so good to meet you that day. I had the best day meeting you two, and I just knew that I had to get you both on the podcast, and you were such a little dream team at Drayton Manor. And now, you know, you’ve set off on your different paths, but it’s lovely to see. For me, it’s really. I think it’s brilliant to see where you’re all going and what your good things are.

Ross Ballinger: Yeah. Thank you.

Danielle Nicholls: That’s really kind. Thank you.

Ross Ballinger: Yeah, it was just one of those cases of, like, sat in the right place at the right time and the rest is history. Like, yeah, loved it. Loved the meeting on that day. Instant connection, you know? And you just get an instant connection with someone who shares the same energy and passion and insight, and they understand what you’re doing and what you stand for. So, yeah, it was a really good day. Loved it. My icebreaker question, I did have four.

Actually, so I don’t even know if Paul knows what. I’m going to be honest.

Paul Marden: Well, I’m taking the other two that you did send me because they were awesome.

Ross Ballinger: I’m going to go with, if you could switch live with any fictional character, who would it be?

Kelly Molson: It’s a really good question. You need to. You have. You’ve wrote all these down, right? This is a good one.

Ross Ballinger: Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly Molson: With any fictional character. I’m trying to think of all the books that I’ve just thinking about. Well, okay. I’ve got this thing about reading. Like, if you go on holiday, I like to take, like, a really familiar book with me on holiday that you’ve read, like, a million times. And I don’t know why. I’ve read The Beach, like, a billion times, which is far better than the film. Like, far better than the film. And I can’t actually remember a guy’s name in it now. It’s gone off my head. But the Leonardo DiCaprio character in the book, I will swap lives with him because I feel like that whole travelling culture, I never got to do that. I wasn’t brave enough to do that when I was younger, and I’d really like to go and do it now, but it’s really difficult for toddler.

Paul Marden: Not brave enough to do that. But you were brave enough to jack it all in and set up an agency 20 years ago.

Kelly Molson: Yeah. Should I have done the travelling? Who knows? But, yeah, I think, yeah, I would swap places with him, although he goes a little bit crazy towards the end. I’d take that.
Ross Ballinger: Thanks for your long lasting impact on a door. Thank you very much. Love you.

Paul Marden: Well said, Ross. Crack and jog. So I’m going to take that and segue off quite nicely now to a video from your greatest fan, my daughter, Miss Amelia Marden. She wanted to be part of this, but she’s busy at school today, so she sent you in a question and she said,

Amelia Marden: Hello, Kelly. I’ve seen the video of the roller coaster you and dad went on at Drayton Manor. My question is, what is your favourite sort of roller coaster? Vertical drop or a loop de loop?

Paul Marden: Love you from Amelia, for listeners. I kept it together on that roller coaster. There was no noise. I was completely composed. Everything was fine until it started moving at the beginning.

Kelly Molson: So was this. No, hang on a minute. Was this the, this was the in the Viking. This is the Viking one, wasn’t it? Because we’ve been on two roller coasters together. And the second one, it was in the rain and there was a lot of screaming in my ear as well. The first one was. Yeah, the first one was relatively screamy as well. What is my favourite? I like the shock of a drop. I do like a loop a loop. I’m cool with those. But there’s something about like that. There’s a, there’s a motion sickness thing with me that is a bit. So the drop one I quite like. And again, this has got another good memory of my dad is that is Terra Towers. He loves the Terror Towers drop so much.

My dad’s got this thing in his head about taking Edie to Disney. Like my dad. My dad best in, he’ll be when she’s five, he’ll be like 76. So, you know, he’s getting on and he’s like, that’s my cutoff point. We’re going to go to Disney when she’s five, whether we all like it or not, because I can’t do it any older than that. And he’s like, we’re going to go on Terror Towers, aren’t we, Dad? I don’t know if you should, dad. It’s almost, I feel like maybe it was trigger of a heart attack. I don’t know. A bit worried. But he’s adamant that he’s, you know.

Paul Marden: He’s going to Edie’s five and we’re taking them on to Terror Towers.

Kelly Molson: Maybe it’s going to work, Dad.

Paul Marden: I think we don’t need to set dad’s expectations, teacups. And it’s a small world and that’s about it.

Kelly Molson: Yeah, I’ll have that chat with him.

Paul Marden: And we have got a message in from Mister David Hingley.

David Hingley: So I sit in a lot of meetings with Kelly, either in person or online, in her role as a trustee at Museum of the Broads. And it’s usually not as dramatic as it might be. We talk about steamboats, coal, and our upcoming Pete exhibition, which is fascinating but can lack a bit of drama. So my question is, if every time you enter a room for the rest of your life a piece of entrance music plays, what piece of music are you choosing and why?

Kelly Molson: Oh, my God. I’ve never thought about this question. This is a great question. Why has everyone given me really good questions now that I’m leaving? You idiots.

Paul Marden: David is promising to play this at every future trustees meeting. As you arrive, he’ll have Spotify on the phone ready to play.

Kelly Molson: What would be my entrance music? I feel like it’s got to be something. It’s got to be something dancy where I can get my groove on. So I feel like. Like this someone’s. Loads of people have probably said this, but I feel like. Like here comes the hot stepper. Would be a good one for me because I can, you know, I can drive in. Here come the odd stepper, you know?

David Hingley: I’ll record the next trustee meeting museums of the broad and circulates to this group.

Kelly Molson: Oh, please do.

Paul Marden: Thank you, David.

Kelly Molson: I’ll tell you what. I’ll do it at the AGM. I’ll dance in at the AGM.

Paul Marden: So last up, we have Mr. Dominic Jones from the Mary Rose, who, along with Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the third most popular paid attraction outside of London in the hour list released yesterday.

Dominic Jones: Yeah, very happy about that. Very happy.

Paul Marden: I can take you one better because still the undisputed most listened to podcast guest on Skip the Queue as of yesterday. Wow.

Dominic Jones: I honestly can’t believe that.

Paul Marden: I know, I know. It’s not as if you haven’t dined out on that fact several times before.

Andy Povey: He doesn’t like to talk about it, Paul.

Kelly Molson: He’s so shy, doesn’t he? 

Dominic Jones: I am shy. I don’t talk about myself. That’s incredible. What did you say number one?

Paul Marden: Number one by country mile, I might say.

Kelly Molson: Yeah, by nearly a hundred downloads, actually.

Dominic Jones: Oh, well, that’s fantastic. I’m absolutely honored about that. I have to say, I am so sad that Skip the Queue with Kelly is coming to an end because it’s kept me company on many a motorway journey, on many a day when I’ve had a really tough day at work and thought, you know, what’s going to cheer me up is Skip the Queue. Because not only do you motivate and inspire the next generation, like the person that sort of bumped into me and Simon, but you also motivate, inspire all of us. And actually, without Skip the Queue, and to be fair, ALVA as well, I don’t think I’d have this amazing network of friends and colleagues that really keep me sane in some of the tough times.

So I know we often talk and Bernard talks about how visitor attractions are like sort of the fourth emergency service, I would say, when it comes to working in a visitor attraction, you and ALVA. So Skip the Queue and ALVA are the emergency services, because without you, I don’t think we’d be sane. Absolutely. You’ve made such a difference to my personal life and I can’t thank you enough. But for an icebreaker question, one of the things that irritates me on Skip the Queue is you can tell who Kellys favourites are. So if she has someone from the zoo and she likes them, whats your favourite animal? Or someone from a theme park, whats your favorite ride? And then she gets people that she just asks really difficult icebreakers. So I was thinking, how can I get the most random, hardest icebreaker?

And I was trying to remember, but when I was a child in the eighties and nineties growing up, a lot of my friends had Sky TV. We couldn’t afford Sky TV. We had BBC One and BBC two. Well, on Sky TV there was this thing called WWF. Now, this was before the Internet. So I went to the library and worked out that it was about looking after animals. Turns out it wasn’t. It was actually wrestling. And so I used to sort of been in the playground, talk to my friends, but never ever watching it, never really understanding it. So I’d be in my bedroom. I was very young at the time, pretending to be a WWF wrestler. I was the praying mantis, because I did watch BBC 2 a lot. Mantis, one of the very strongest animal in the animal kingdom.

But if you were a wrestler in the WWF, what would be your wrestling name?

Kelly Molson: I used to love the wrestling.

Dominic Jones: I bet you did. I bet you did.

Kelly Molson: I did. We went. So they did the one in the UK. They did the royal rumble and I had the finger and everything. Yeah. I used to like the bushwhackers and rowdy Roddy Piper and Jake the Snake. I was well into it. I was really into it. Yeah. I was not cool at school until I was well into the wrestling. So what would be my wrestling name?

Dominic Jones: Yeah. And why?

Kelly Molson: The trouble is, I’m a bit of a lover, not a fighter, so don’t think I’d actually make a very good wrestler. I’m not actually that aggressive. Looking at me as if I’ve said something crazy, then I’m not a fight. I might have a fiery temper, but I’m not a fighter. Oh, God. It’s. I don’t know what rhymes. Like, Kelly’s a really rubbish name to rhyme stuff, but Kick ass Kelly, it’s rubbish, isn’t it?

Dominic Jones: Good, that’ll do.

Kelly Molson: Okay. Kick ass Kelly. Yeah. I don’t know what would be my costume. There’d definitely be some neon in there. I feel like I’d be like the eighties girl. Like neon leggings and leg warmers and stuff. Yeah.

Dominic Jones: And maybe some fire in the background as well, just to spice it up. Yeah.

Kelly Molson: Yeah, maybe.

Paul Marden: I reckon there’s got to be some cheese in there as well. You need some. You need some cheese in that wrestler name, ain’t it?

Kelly Molson: There’s not many cheeses that begin that, like, rhyme with Kelly either.

Dominic Jones: The worst ever icebreaker. I’ve ruined it.

Kelly Molson: Good question. No, I like it.

Dominic Jones: Oh, I should have done. What’s your favourite boat? That’s what I should have done.

Paul Marden: Oh, come on then.

Kelly Molson: What’s my favourite boat? Well, it would have to be the falcon or the. Can’t remember the name of the other one.

David Hingley: Well, the other one.

Kelly Molson: Is it the Marsh Harrier?

David Hingley: That’s the one.

Kelly Molson: There you go. At the Museum of the Broads is a wonderful museum. You can also take your family out on a little boat trip. It’s also dog friendly as well, you know, bring all your friends.

Dominic Jones: Great. Plug in one of your recent episodes. I was listening and thought about booking a holiday. It was a great plug in the last episode. You did?

Kelly Molson: Well, if you do fancy a little holiday trip to Norfolk, you know, there’s a little holiday cottage that you could. You could hit me up for, Dominic. So just, you know, let me know.

Dominic Jones: Absolutely.

Paul Marden: I reckon I should have got 20 quid in my pocket every time you mention that guest house.

Kelly Molson: I really hope that someone books someday and they’re like, “We heard it on Skip the Queue.” “Yes! It worked.”

Paul Marden: They’ll insist on a discount. Thank you, Dom. That was amazing. If any of our listeners would like to support any of the other guests and boost their listener figures to compete with Don, I’m going to put the details of everybody’s episodes in the show notes, because frankly, 

Dominic Jones: Why would you do that?

Kelly Molson: That’s mean.

Dominic Jones: Why would you do that? Surely this is the end now. Number one, the end.

Paul Marden: We’re talking load of nonsense and I need to put something in the show notes. So I thought I’d put the episodes that everybody was in on the show notes. Can you exclude one, Paul? Oh, I’m sure I can, yes.

Dominic Jones: I think yours is okay, Andy. I wouldn’t exclude you. Yours was a great one. 

Paul Marden: So they’ll all be in the show notes. And lastly, all of our guests asked to pick a book that they love. So Kelly, what’s your book?

Kelly Molson: I read this book right at the very start of my agency journey. A very good friend of mine, he’s been a coach of mine for a number of years, said that you should read this book, and it is How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. It’s a very old book, but it is a classic. And this book opened my eyes and ears. So it really taught me how to understand and listen to people. And I think for me, building an agency like we have over the years, so much of that comes down to listening to people, understanding what their challenges are. You know, we have to network. You know, a lot of what we do is based on reputation and how likable you can be and all of those kind of things.

And this book really gives you an understanding of that, about what it is to be likable. And you shouldn’t have to teach this to people. Like, really, it’s pretty common sense, but, you know, it can be difficult for people to understand, like, why you should listen to people and why you should just let people talk. And I think a lot of the things that I learned from this book, I have applied to the podcast, so I just want to read out a little synopsis. Well, some of the things that I think are really important about how you listen to people, and it’s. It’s about becoming genuinely interested in other people.

And I hope that has come across in this podcast, because every single person that has come on and shared with me has just given me so much to think about, and I’ve learned so much from you all. It teaches you to smile, like smiling is just so important. I’ve always been amazed at how many people that don’t smile back when I smile at them when I’m out walking the dog in the morning. Just smiling is the simplest thing that you can do to connect with somebody. Remembering people’s names. Remember that a person’s name to that person is the most important sound in any language. Make sure that you can just remember people’s names. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. And I hope that I’ve done that. I’ve always hoped this podcast, you know, it’s not about me.

It won’t be about Paul. It will be about all the guests that come on and still continue to come on and talk to us about their stories and their challenges and their initiatives and all the brilliant things that they do. And I hope that I have gone above and beyond in making other people feel important. And I hope I’ve been sincere in doing that as well because it is all about you. You all make this podcast amazing and I genuinely am so grateful that you’ve allowed me into your ears and allowed me to share everybody else’s stories in a really fun way. So thank you.

Paul Marden: Kelly, that was really. Yeah, awesome. Listeners. If you’d like to win in Kelly’s book, then head over to the show announcement on X and retweet as saying, I want Kelly’s book. That just leaves me to say that we are busy planning season six now. Wanlyn and I met yesterday with Oz to start brainstorming ideas for what we can do in season six. If you’ve got ideas, then send them in. Let us know on Twitter. We’d love to hear those X, I should say. If you would like to appear in an episode, let us know, because I love to interview people. So let us know if you’d like to come onto the podcast, that would be amazing. That’s about it from all of us here today. So I want to thank my lovely co hosts, the Skip the Queue alumni.

I want to thank the rest of the Rubber Cheese team that came along as well. I want to thank you, Kelly, for everything that you’ve done for us and thank the lovely listeners. I look forward to seeing you all in the next episode of Skip the Queue.

Kelly Molson: Thank you so much. This is amazing. Thank you. 

Do you know someone we should be talking to?

Do you know someone fascinating we should be talking to?

If so, email us at hello@rubbercheese.com – we’ll get back to you shortly.

Author:

Kelly Molson Managing Director

Host of the popular Skip the Queue Podcast, for people working in or working with visitor attractions, she regularly delivers workshops and presentations on the sector at various national conferences and universities including The Visitor Attractions Conference, ASVA and Anglia Ruskin University.

Read more about me