I had the honor and opportunity to interview one of the most incredible humans I know, Sheilah Sable, inside of her van. We had the most amazing discussion about her business of dealing with joyful changes and yes, the messiness of people’s lives.
Q: Talk to me about Call Sheilah:
“Errands, projects, tasks and senior move management. What that means is I’m at your service for overwhelming projects or they just can’t get to it. People are busy. People have families, they have ducks, dogs, jobs, homes, aging parents. So you just can’t get things done. I don’t have all that and I have a hard time getting stuff done. That’s where my business comes in, we’re here to help.”
Sheilah’s goes on to explain that she sees a lot of people who agonize over stuff for years and her team can help within 3-6 hours and get things done.
Q: Can you give an example of some of the tasks that people have called you to help them with?
“I had a client who’s adult child who was in a terrible car accident. He had 2 oversize bins of insurance paperwork that he’d been staring at for months. It was coming down to the wire he needed to submit all the paperwork from the insurance company to the legal team and he needed to get it manageable. When I saw it, I thought it was going to take a really long time, but it was not even 4 hours with him. We got it down to a shoe box size Tupperware, and that was that. So that type of thing.”
Sheilah’s tagline is: “No errands to small, no task too large.” She tells me: “If I can’t do it, I’ll find someone who can.”
Q: Give an example of things people call you for:
“I’m becoming this logistics person, this solutionist. I get phone calls from people’s parents who have already downsized and now they are living in a small apartment, but they need to move to assisted living. So they call me to manage that small piece. My team will go in and pack up the small stuff and I’ll bring in my favorite mover (Man With a Van) We will move them and then unpack them and make it nice. They are having a major profound transition, so I want to make sure they are in there are as set up as can be because they are going to deal with emotional stuff.”
Q: What is the most bizarre thing you’ve helped someone with?
With a laugh, Sheilah says: “I guess the most unique is helping a family find a puppy.” After receiving an award from the YWCA for resourceful women, entrepreneur of the year, a woman saw called her and asked Sheilah to find a puppy for her family. After a series of questions and research, the family settled on a goldendoodle. “That was a great client because at the end of it everyone was happy.”
Often times however, the circumstances which people call Sheilah are not so happy. “There was a couple who was getting a divorce and it wasn’t pretty. Her lawyer called me and asked me to push all of his stuff into a PODS container because there was some issues, and it needed to get out of the house. No questions asked. While we were there I brought in a painter and painted her bathroom.”
Sheilah also has a number of Companion Work clients she sees regularly. She is hired to do anything from taking an elderly woman out to dinner, bringing someone to doctor’s appointments, and running errands. “I’m a friend, and if something happens, I call 911.”
“I have another guy who calls me every couple of days and asks for a bag of cough drops or bags of M&Ms. There’s another gentleman in the same facility who has me bring him a gallon of vodka every once in a while. All sorts of needs, no questions asked.”
Q: Tell me about your career and what led you to Call Sheilah.
When Sheilah was a child, she was the one always making sure her parents were OK. By the time she became a teenager, all of those burdens became skills and gifts. As an adult people would call her and ask her for help. “They’d be like ‘Call Sheilah’ she’ll do it. That’s how Call Sheilah actually tangibly became a thing.”
Sheilah started her career in non-profit. “Fairness and justice are a thing. They go hand in hand because injustice is not fair. I’ve always worked in non-profits where the mission is to somehow facilitate fairness and justice for people who are not getting that. And equality and justice are two different things.” Her last last job before starting Call Sheilah was working on LGBTQ advocacy, marriage equality and anti-discrimination for transgender and gender nonconforming people and all things related to that.
“There’s a lot of horrific homelessness, and hate crimes and violence against that community, my community. So that’s where I worked. In the middle of it, it started to become clear, I wasn’t cut out for 9-5, I’m cut out for sitting in a van, talking to you, you know, getting stuff done.”
Q: Talk to me about your van- tell us the story about that.
“I started to realize that I’m helping people with downsizing that there’s a lot of stuff that has to leave the house. One of the goals in downsizing is to make sure people get a clear space when I leave so we take the stuff to the extent that’s possible, and my car was a mess.” She called a friend who is a used car dealer and told him what I wanted. She kept checking his website and one day saw this red van on his website. It was a 2001 Ford Windstar with 40,000 miles and it lived in Tennessee so it had no rust. She had it wrapped with her bird logo, Call Sheilah and tagline.
“Now it’s kind of a spectacle. It’s a cool van. It was fabricated for a gentleman who was a paraplegic who didn’t need the van anymore there’s no seats in the back so it’s all cargo and upfront is command central so I have everything I need.”
Q: Can you talk about a common misconception about Call Sheilah.
There’s no slot on Google business for a personal concierge so she listed herself as a professional organizer and she get calls on that. Professional organizer is not so much the misconception, because she does senior move management. The errands, projects and tasks are the things she really wants people to think about: “What do I have in my life that I’m not getting to?” A client once said to her: “You’re in the messiness of people’s lives.”
“I have like 3 projects in my life right now that I need help with. I would Call Sheilah if I could. It’s those types of projects. For example, I have 6000 business cards and I want them in a spreadsheet. Small businesses need help but they don’t necessarily need a person for hours a week. Just bring it to Call Sheilah and get it done and see ya later and then call me in 3 months.”
Q: What is a question you get asked a lot?
People ask her: “What would I use you for?” My job as a salesperson is to help people think what would you use me for? I know you have stressful things you look at around your house that make you say “Oh my God.” Well, that‘s the thing!
Q: How do you work with someone who is a hoarder?
“I don’t do it alone. To be quite honest I’ve worked with 2 people who fall into that category and I honestly don’t think I helped them. I refer them to someone. I know my limitations. I want to help that person, that’s my brand. I’m not trying to just move stuff all over the house and get paid. I want to help you.”
Q: When someone Calls Sheilah, what is a question that they should be asking you?
Sheilah says that you should be prepared to tell her what’s causing you stress, and what is your end goal. Be prepared to talk about the end.
“I did this wedding coordination for these 2 women, and I could see all the needs. One of the things that happened with her was her father wasn’t so keen on the same sex marriage thing, so she wasn’t going to ask him to do the first dance and I told her she had to ask him. That was the biggest thing I did for them. Not only did he want to dance with his daughter, but her wanted to dance with his future daughter in law too and it was a beautiful thing. That was the best thing.”
Q: Switching gears, what do you typically do for lunch?
As a solo-entrepreneur, anyone who has a hustle like mine food is definitely becoming a challenge. Having that balance of breakfast lunch and dinner. So, a lot of times I’ll stop at the co-op. As a goal, Sheilah says she’d like to be the person who brings a lunch.
Q: Is there anything else you want people to know about your business?
Sheilah now has a team working with her! “You may not get Sheilah, but you will get someone who has the same mission and delivery of service.”
For more information or to book an appointment visit her website: callsheilah.com.
Follow her on Instagram: @callsheilah
