Day: August 27, 2025

• I was proud of my work and proud to be an executive. Then, in one 10-minute video chat, it was gone.
• I now divide my time between applying for new jobs and finding side work to stretch my savings.
• Working for DoorDash and Rover, I’ve learned that sometimes those with the most are the least generous.

One month ago, I was a communications executive with a six-figure salary. Today, I deliver sandwiches for DoorDash, sometimes for nearly minimum wage.

The first time I accepted a DoorDash order, I nearly cried. Just weeks earlier, I had been managing crisis communications for an entire industry.

Now, I was delivering people’s lunches and dinners — all because one person decided to eliminate my job. One person. One decision.

I wasn’t prepared for that gut punch, or for the cashier at a store where I was picking up an order who unknowingly voiced my shame: “You don’t look like a DoorDasher.”

I started gig work to stretch my savings

So much of our identity is wrapped up in our jobs. Most of us spend at least a third of our waking hours working, so it’s no wonder our jobs become such a big part of who we are.

I worked hard to reach the level I was at, starting as an administrative assistant, finishing my college degree, and climbing the corporate ladder. I was proud of my work and proud to be an executive.

Then, in one 10-minute video chat, it was gone. I was left asking all the questions anyone in that situation would: How will I pay my mortgage? What if I don’t find another job? How long will my savings last? Do I have any chocolate in the house? Is 11 a.m. too early for tequila shots?

I decided the best approach was to divide my time between applying for new jobs and finding side work to stretch my savings. I signed up for both DoorDash and Rover, knowing people who had used them successfully. The gig work was eye-opening, to say the least. One day, in particular, tells the story best.

Some lessons I’ve learned about human behavior

DoorDash is largely faceless. Someone orders through an app, you pick up the food, and drop it off without ever meeting them. This is a real bonus when you’re sweaty and gross after a hike — no judgment.

However, as social media has taught us, people often don’t put their best foot forward when they can hide behind a screen, and it shows in the tips.

Here’s what astonishes me: sometimes those with the most are the least generous. One DoorDash shift, I delivered a $40 order to a family in an upscale neighborhood — almost a 20-minute drive from the restaurant, with homes easily worth over $1 million. They tipped $3. After accounting for the distance from the store to the customer’s home, I made the equivalent of $8.50 an hour for that Panera run.

Not an hour later, I delivered an $8 order to a young retail worker, likely earning around $15/hour. The entire order took about 10 minutes to fulfill. She tipped $3.75.

Why is it that those who can least afford it are often the most generous? What is it about humans that sometimes makes us stingier as we acquire more?

My Rover reality check

I had a Rover job scheduled for later that same evening, so I wrapped up my shift and headed to the house-sitting gig. I arrived early and was greeted by an adorable Goldendoodle. Then things got strange: the owners weren’t leaving.

Normally, house sitting means caring for a pet while the owner is gone — and having some freedom in the meantime.

However, these folks were hosting a party and wanted me to follow the dog around the entire time so she didn’t get overexcited, as she had been sick earlier in the day. I spent 4½ hours on the fringes of their gathering, feeling like an interloper the entire time, and was completely bored out of my mind.

For that, I got paid $31. I felt taken advantage of, and it was a clear lesson in human behavior. In gig work, you learn to double-check the job details — otherwise you might find yourself the uninvited guest at someone else’s dinner party.

What I learned about myself (and others)

This experience has taught me a lot about myself. I’ve realized that status matters to me, perhaps more than it should.

I’ve also learned that I am strong, resilient, and willing to do what it takes to keep a roof over my family’s head.

I’ve seen that some people prioritize money over kindness, but if you look closely, there are people with hearts of gold. Those are my people.

I’m still chasing the right long-term job. Until then, gig work doubles as my paycheck — and my personal sociology experiment.

• 40-year-old Ben Goodwin is the cofounder and CEO of prebiotic soda brand Olipop.
• A typical day for Goodwin involves a packed lineup of meetings and testing flavors at the lab.
• Goodwin balances work with time cold-plunging and sauna-ing. He DJs on the weekends.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ben Goodwin, the 40-year-old cofounder and CEO of prebiotic soda Olipop based in Washington. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A lot of CEOs try to be these relentless Terminators, which, to a certain extent, I am.

But I also like to go to the farmers market on the weekend. Like anybody else, I play Mario Kart, and I DJ when I can.

I’m really disciplined and I work really hard, but I also make sure that whenever I can, I insert some time for relaxing or being creative in a way that I find fulfilling.

I try to set my schedule up for balance. Here’s what a day in my life looks like.

I wake up at 7 a.m., take supplements, drink cold brew in a wine glass, and take a hot-cold shower

The first thing I do when I wake up is shove caffeine in my face and take a couple of key supplements, like creatine and a couple of things for my hormones.

A hot-cold shower is exactly what it sounds like. I switch off between hot water and the coldest setting. In the morning, I try to experience some discomfort to get ready for the day. Usually, as soon as it gets too cold, I switch it back.

I prioritize getting nutrition in the morning

For breakfast, I try to make something that has as much protein as I can cram in, and hopefully some fiber. Sometimes, if I’m under fire, I’ll just have a healthy bar.

I’ve experimented with a billion different diets. I did intermittent fasting for a long time. I did keto for a while. Now, I try to be mindful of when in the day I eat more carb-rich meals. So during my morning, there’s basically low to no carbs.

I start work at 8 a.m.

Usually, I’m in meetings until around 5 p.m., but sometimes until 7 p.m. I really try to stay away from calls and Zooms in the evening.

I try to work out before noon, but otherwise do it in the evening

There are definitely times when the last thing I want to do is work out. But I also know that if I don’t exercise, that’s going to create real problems for me. So, unless I’m genuinely too sore, I make sure to get regular exercise.

I’ll do some real cardio that doesn’t overtax me, like a fast uphill walk. Then I’ll do some barbell stuff, lots of squats and deadlifts, standing rows, curls, overheads.

I go to the lab to try flavors

If I have no calls, I try to get to the flavor lab around 3 p.m. The amount of time I spend at the lab depends on whether Olipop is actively working on a new flavor.

In recent years, Olipop has debuted three to four flavors a year.

I go into the flavor lab with my yellow notepad and make different iterations of my best guess of what will make the right formula. I try them all. I pick the best one and iterate until I find a spot that I’m really happy with. Then I send it to our lab in the Bay Area, and I’ll have them do the finishing touches as we get ready to commercialize.

I like to have a lighter lunch. I hate being full when working.

I usually don’t know exactly when my lunch break will fall, how long it will be, or what I will have around, so lunch can be a little more variable.

It could be a smoothie, remnants of breakfast, or a snack. I tend to eat a lighter lunch, and one of the drivers of that is that I hate being full.

If I’m hitting that mid-day slump and I feel full on top of that, I am not going to be where I need to be. I like to feel lighter while I’m working so my brain has plenty of clarity.

On my rest days, I do thermal cycling

I’ve been sauna and cold-plunging, which I call thermal cycling, for probably 15 to 20 years.

I can easily sit in a sauna for 45 minutes, and I’ll stretch while I’m in there. Then, I’ll typically use the cold plunge, which is set at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and I’ll sit in that for five or more minutes.

I’ll do a couple of rounds of that. It knocks out any colds that are trying to take root, and I also find it really good for resetting my nervous system.

Work is very taxing on the nervous system. I run a little more anxious, so it helps ground me. It’s definitely uncomfortable, but I’m acclimated to it, and it’s super valuable.

Dinner is usually 7 to 8 p.m.

As the day goes on, I might try to have a more carb-rich meal at night because that’s going to soothe my nervous system a little more, especially if I worked out. I’ve got to put carbohydrates back in the muscles so I have more energy the next day.

I go to bed at 11 or 11:30 p.m.

On a weekday, I try to be asleep by midnight.

It is inevitable that I’m going to think about the business, but in my ideal world, when I’m done with my battery of calls, I’m just focused on winding down for the evening.

I DJ on the weekends

It’s important to spend time doing something you find really fulfilling and not thinking about work.

I DJ whenever I can, but it’s usually a weekend activity.

I’m into electronic music, like house or techno. I started DJing right after high school, so it’s been a really long-standing passion of mine. I went in the business direction because I thought I was more guaranteed to make a positive impact — but there could be a world post-Olipop where I’m really focused on music.

I don’t want to be 80 and looking back and thinking, “Oh, I didn’t do as much as I wanted to with one of my biggest passions.”

• In mid-July, KFC officially launched its “Kentucky Fried Comeback” turnaround campaign.
• The legacy fried chicken chain has lost market share to competitors like Popeyes and Raising Cane’s.
• My first meals there in more than 15 years showed why the beloved brand is struggling.

I recently visited KFC for the first time in 15 years, chasing nostalgia — and left with no desire to return. A week later, another location surprised me with a fried feast that actually hit the spot. Then, at a third stop, the food landed somewhere in between.

The problem, I realized, isn’t what’s on the menu. It’s that KFC can’t seem to serve the same meal twice.

In mid-July, the company launched its “Kentucky Fried Comeback” turnaround campaign after years of losing ground to competitors like Popeyes and Raising Cane’s.

Executives know this is a critical moment for the 72-year-old chain to reclaim its former fast food glory. Sales have been down year over year in most quarters since 2023. And customer satisfaction slipped 5% in 2024, the American Customer Satisfaction Index found.

Catherine Tan-Gillespie, president of KFC US, previously told Business Insider that consumer sentiment and customer satisfaction scores have slipped, and the brand needs a makeover to keep up with shifting tastes.

The turnaround effort is to show customers that the company is changing, Tan-Gillespie said last month at the start of the campaign. “If you can give your exes a million second chances, why not give KFC a second chance? We’re really worth the try,” she said.

I have a deep nostalgia for visiting the dual A&W-KFC location near my hometown after middle school volleyball games. So, more than a decade after my last visit, I went to see how the comeback effort — featuring new menu items, planned renovations, celebrity partnerships, and the reintroduction of the brand mascot, Colonel Sanders — is going in its early days.

My meals, which varied radically between locations across three different counties in Southern California, showed me that KFC has its work cut out for it.

“A key initiative of our Kentucky Fried Comeback Plan is making every guest experience consistent, convenient, and craveable,” a spokesperson for KFC told Business Insider. The corporate KFC offices set “clear brand standards across food, service, and hospitality” to ensure consistency across its franchised locations and have quality control measures in place, “such as daily checks via a mobile app on routines, ongoing operations scorecard tracking, and independent third-party audits several times a year.”

Santa Barbara County

At a location on California’s Central Coast in mid-August, the tables and chairs were clean. There was a distinct smell of stale frying oil, and the dark red paint on the walls was peeling. Two other customers stopped by the restaurant during the 45 minutes while I dined.

Social media reviews of this location, dating back to 2017, indicate it needs a facelift, and I agree. Tan-Gillespie told me last month that renovations to existing locations would be announced soon.

I ordered through the KFC Rewards app, picking fried pickles, extra crispy chicken with a waffle, and a pair of biscuits. I also selected a Famous Bowl “Fill Up” box, an $8.24 combo meal with good value that included a drink and Apple Pie Poppers — bite-sized apple turnovers with flaky pie crust.

Because my order cost more than $15 (the total was $24.35), I also received a free eight-piece bucket of chicken tenders as part of the comeback promotion.

The Famous Bowl, once my go-to entrée, didn’t hit the nostalgic note I’d hoped for. It had soggy chicken bites and a tinny aftertaste to the corn that made it seem like the kernels had been dumped into the meal straight from a can. The waffle was disappointingly dense, and although the biscuit was tasty, both the bone-in fried chicken and the tenders were not crispy, and had flaky, soft breading that didn’t stick to the protein.

I also sampled one of KFC’s new drinks: a Dr Pepper with sweet vanilla cream, designed to attract Gen Z fans of customizable sodas with mix-ins. The syrup was too sweet for my liking and thickly concentrated toward the bottom of the cup.

Walking out of the restaurant, I couldn’t help notice the gap between what KFC is aiming for and what it’s delivering.

Los Angeles County

The second location in the San Fernando Valley was bright and airy. The light paint job and recently refurbished signage felt inviting.

My meal was remarkably more delicious than the first stop. The extra-crispy, bone-in fried chicken blew my expectations out of the water. The Famous Bowl didn’t taste quite as I remembered but had a fresher flavor and fried chicken pieces that held up better to the mashed potatoes and gravy. The biscuit was fluffier than the one at the prior store, and while I still didn’t care for the waffle, it was tastier than the first location.

By the time I ate here, potato wedges — an old fan favorite — had been re-released. My order had been fried well, and I found myself returning to the box to nibble on more as I sampled the rest of the menu items.

I’m not typically a Mountain Dew drinker, but I also tried the limited-edition Sweet Lightning Peaches and Cream Soda — the sweet cream mix-in just wasn’t for me.

There was far more foot traffic at this location, and I could immediately see why.

Ventura County

The first store disappointed, the second delighted, and the third stop landed somewhere in the middle.

The Ventura County location had a refreshed and welcoming interior. It was the only one of the three stores with a digital ordering kiosk, which functioned smoothly, and a drive-thru, which had a line when I arrived.

I repeated the staples of my order, with an added side of the recently re-released Hot and Spicy Wings. I also skipped the sweet cream mix-in to my soda, opting for a plain fountain drink, which I preferred.

Every item at the third location was squarely satisfactory — neither phenomenal nor disappointing. The fried chicken was warm and crispy, the biscuit fluffy, and the potato wedges a little softer than I’d prefer but still worth a second bite.

After three stops, what stood out most wasn’t the menu itself but the uneven experience from one restaurant to the next.

If the “Kentucky Fried Comeback” is going to work, KFC has to prove it can deliver the same quality no matter where its customers walk through the door. And until the chicken can measure up across every store, KFC will simply be putting new feathers on the same old bird.