Top Floor

Susan Barry is a marketer, podcaster, consultant, speaker, bird influencer, and serial starter of delightfully unconventional side projects, all connected by a deep belief in the power of creativity. In this solo episode, she explores why hospitality may be optimizing itself out of its most human advantage and what that means for education, recruitment, and guest experience.

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What You'll Learn:

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• Why hospitality is still an ...

Anna Blue is the founder and CEO of Blue Moss Group, where she helps organizations connect growth with purpose. With leadership experience spanning hospitality, nonprofits, advocacy, and media, Anna brings a unique perspective to hospitality through her work at the intersection of business strategy, social impact, and influence. Susan and Anna talk about creator culture, corporate authenticity, and hospitality's people problem.

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Zack Gharib is the President of Red Roof, bringing decades of leadership experience across Marriott, Wyndham, Vacasa, and beyond. From a chance encounter with a hotel GM in Athens to leading one of hospitality's biggest tech transformations, Zack shares what it really takes to succeed in today's lodging landscape. Susan and Zack talk about AI automation, franchisee profitability, and vacation-rental versatility.

What You'll Learn:

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Lucy Lieberman is a longtime digital innovator who has spent her career jumping into emerging technology before the rest of the market catches up — from early websites and streaming to loyalty platforms and AI-powered travel. She's led digital transformation for brands like IHG, Amex, and FAO Schwartz, and she most recently served as CEO of Michelin Guide Hotels during one of the toughest moments in travel history. In this episode,...

Emily Goldfischer is a hospitality PR veteran turned media entrepreneur and co-founder of hertelier, a platform amplifying women's voices in the hotel industry. After a decade shaping brand narratives at Loews Hotels and a pivot into journalism in London, she uncovered a glaring gap in female representation at the top. Susan and Emily talk about advocacy, research, and storytelling.

What You'll Learn:

• Why personalized pitches out...

Jelani Millard is the founder of the Wapechi Collection, a travel-focused investment platform blending hospitality, real estate, and emerging tech ventures. With roots in finance, he's carved a unique lane exploring how travel really works—from boutique hotels in Ghana to "Pay Me in Plane Tickets." Susan and Jelani talk about unpacking travel's hidden truths through stories, systems, and sacrifices.

What You'll Learn:

How a Ghana h...

Tim Leffel is a veteran travel writer and editor who left the music industry to explore the world, building a location-independent career along the way. He's reviewed over 1,500 hotels across dozens of countries and now publishes insights on remote work and global living. Susan and Tim talk about fear, freedom, and finding value in travel.

Why travel fears are overblown (and what's actually risky)
What it really takes to become a d...

Scott Webb is a longtime leader at Kolter Hospitality who turned a condo crisis into a thriving hotel portfolio spanning major brands. With over three decades of experience, he blends real estate discipline with hands-on hotel operations to drive smart growth. Susan and Scott talk about leadership lessons and share insights on people, performance, and property strategy.

What You'll Learn
• Why investing in team training beats cutti...

Chris Russell is a hospitality executive and CEO of Spire Hospitality, known for building and scaling hotel management companies from the ground up. A Culinary Institute of America graduate who pivoted from the kitchen to operations, he's spent decades shaping teams, launching platforms, and leading growth across the industry. Susan and Chris talk about career choices, company building, and culture shifts.

What You'll Learn
• How a...

This is probably the weirdest episode yet. For seven minutes, Susan talks about not being a team player and why personal development is suspect. Then, she joins Calvin Tilokee for a joke-off of Spring-themed pick-up lines for hoteliers. Are you scratching your head in confusion? Good!

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Susan Barry on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susandbarry/

Top Floor on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/top-floor-podcast

Calvin...

Mark Wayman is a longtime executive recruiter and former tech-to-gaming industry insider known for building one of the most powerful networks in Las Vegas. He unpacks how careers evolve across industries and why relationships, not resumes, drive success. Susan and Mark talk about networking nuance, hiring honesty, and hospitality hustle.

• Why relationships beat talent in hiring decisions
• Why hosting beats attending networking ev...

Jascha Kaykas-Wolff is the CEO of Visiting Media and a longtime tech leader who has helped shape digital marketing at companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, BitTorrent, and Mozilla. Raised in a socialist collective outside Eugene, Oregon, by a pioneering rock concert promoter, he grew up thinking deeply about systems, autonomy, and how teams work together. Susan and Jascha talk about AI acceleration, authentic leadership, and agile innov...

Lori Mukoyama is a Design Principal and Global Hospitality Leader at Gensler, shaping hotel experiences across cities from Chicago to Tokyo. With a background in boutique retail and large-scale hospitality design, she focuses on the tactile and emotional details that shape guests' experience of a space. Susan and Lori talk about design details, destination differences, and the future of guest experience.

What You'll Learn

• What de...

Kurt Oleson is the Chief Operating Officer and co-owner of Custom Channels, a Denver-based company delivering fully licensed, human-curated music solutions for hotels and restaurants. A classically trained pianist turned music technologist, he helped build early music-recommendation algorithms before joining his company. Susan and Kurt talk about licensing landmines and algorithmic ethics.

What You'll Learn:
• Why playing Spotify i...

Leora Lanz is an associate professor at Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration and a former global marketing leader who helped grow HVS from seven offices to forty worldwide. After decades in destination marketing, hotel operations, and consultancy, she turned her classroom casework into two books on developing a marketing mindset. Susan and Leora talk about critical thinking, conscious marketing, and career coura...

Travis Burns is Executive Vice President of Business Development at Remington Hospitality, where he's helping scale the company's third-party management platform. A former aerospace professional turned hotelier, he walked into the Hyatt Regency Tulsa Downtown asking for any job, and built a career spanning sales, operations, and investment strategy. In this episode, he unpacks profit over prestige, luxury's lift, and gut-driven gro...

Susan Barry is the founder of Hive Marketing and the host of Top Floor, bringing hotel sales, marketing, and ownership-side perspectives to the mic. In this solo episode, she reintroduces herself to new listeners from Hotel Online and HFTP and zooms out on a timely industry controversy to ask a much bigger question about power, history, and responsibility in hospitality. This episode is short and sweet, much like Susan.

How Susan w...

Tracy Stuckrath is the founder of thrive! meetings & events, where she helps planners, venues, and chefs stop accidentally poisoning their guests (a low bar, but here we are). After being diagnosed with a food allergy and realizing she couldn't safely eat at her own events, Tracy built a mission around safer, more inclusive hospitality, and later launched the "Eating at a Meeting" podcast during COVID. Susan and Tracy talk about sa...

Christine Malfair is a lifelong hotelier turned independent-hotel marketing fixer, with a career spanning cruise ships, GM roles, and 15 years building Malfair Marketing as an early "remote fractional CMO." She helps independent hotels cut through AI noise and get found by guests and machines without losing their minds. Susan and Christine talk about clarity, consistency, and competitive courage.

• Employee use of ChatGPT and real ...