Episode 45

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Published on:

22nd Jan 2026

Sock Knitting Beans, Pineapple on Pizza(?!?) and More with Susan Barry

In this week’s 5 Random Questions, Danny chats with Susan Barry, host of the award-winning Top Floor podcast and fonder of Hive Marketing. They discuss everything from why pineapple belongs on pizza, beans that can knit socks, the perfect day, and more.

Answering the questions this week: Susan Barry

Susan Barry is known for connecting ideas across hotel investment, operations, and marketing. As host of the award-winning Top Floor podcast, named a Top 10 Hospitality Podcast by the International Hospitality Institute in 2025, Susan sparks curiosity and conversation by interviewing leaders who are shaping the future of the industry. Her career spans B2B marketing, hotel ownership and management, and start-ups ranging from aviation data to spa products, giving her a unique vantage point on the business of hospitality. Susan founded Hive Marketing, a firm specializing in B2B demand generation for the hospitality industry. In addition to her advisory and thought leadership work, she serves on the steering committee of Female Founders in Hospitality and is a partner at Cayuga Hospitality Consultants. Susan is known for her sharp insights, humor, and ability to push conversations beyond the expected. She lives in Atlanta with her artist husband, Sean.

Susan's Website

@topfloorpod on Instagram

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Transcript
Speaker:

Susan: You're gonna be like i never should have had this idiot on my show! When your

Speaker:

Susan: bean has knit enough socks this you can sell the socks in air quotes sell to

Speaker:

Susan: buy furniture and accessories for your beans apartment

Speaker:

Danny: Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show with unexpected questions and unfiltered answers.

Speaker:

Danny: I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests 5 questions

Speaker:

Danny: created by a random question generator.

Speaker:

Danny: The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I,

Speaker:

Danny: which means this could go either way.

Speaker:

Danny: So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.

Speaker:

Danny: Today's guest is Susan Barry. Susan is known for connecting ideas across hotel

Speaker:

Danny: investment, operations, and marketing.

Speaker:

Danny: As host of the award-winning Top Floor podcast, named a Top 10 Hospitality podcast

Speaker:

Danny: by the International Hospitality Institute in 2025, Susan sparks curiosity and

Speaker:

Danny: conversation by interviewing leaders who are shaping the future of the industry.

Speaker:

Danny: Susan founded Hive Marketing, a firm specialising in B2B demand generation for

Speaker:

Danny: the hospitality industry, and she's also known for her sharp insights,

Speaker:

Danny: humour and ability to push conversations beyond the expected.

Speaker:

Danny: She lives in Atlanta with her artist husband, Sean. So Susan,

Speaker:

Danny: welcome to 5 Random Questions.

Speaker:

Susan: Danny, thank you so much for having me. What a nice introduction.

Speaker:

Susan: I just want to put that on repeat and listen to it.

Speaker:

Danny: You're very welcome. And obviously, this is an audio-only podcast,

Speaker:

Danny: but we're in a room that shares video.

Speaker:

Danny: And I mentioned before starting recording, behind you is a lovely print that

Speaker:

Danny: turns out that your husband is the artist of.

Speaker:

Susan: Yes, it's a huge painting. It's an abstract with lots of different colors,

Speaker:

Susan: which is a little bit out of character for him,

Speaker:

Susan: but still something that I feel really lucky to be able to have my hands on

Speaker:

Susan: because it's too big for him to transport to fine art festivals.

Speaker:

Susan: So I get to have it as my backdrop, and it always sparks a lot of conversation.

Speaker:

Danny: Understandably so it looks amazing and this is one of the reasons I wish I did

Speaker:

Danny: a video version of this podcast yeah it looks very very good so kudos to your husband,

Speaker:

Danny: And as I mentioned in your intro there, your podcast, you know,

Speaker:

Danny: it's a top podcast, an award-winning podcast, and it's been running for more than 200 episodes.

Speaker:

Danny: And one thing that caught my eye in the description on your website is come

Speaker:

Danny: for the expert tips, stay for the load and dock stories.

Speaker:

Danny: I'm guessing the load and dock is the delivery because you used to work as part

Speaker:

Danny: of that. Is the delivery load and dock area of hotels? Is that correct?

Speaker:

Susan: Yes. Okay. And in hotels and restaurants and maybe every other kind of company,

Speaker:

Susan: the loading dock is where people go to dish the dirt and tell their secrets,

Speaker:

Susan: share their crazy stories.

Speaker:

Susan: Hospitality is very, very, very famous for having the truly craziest stories of all time.

Speaker:

Susan: And so when I initially started planning out the show, I really just wanted

Speaker:

Susan: to invite people to come on and tell me their hard-to-believe stories.

Speaker:

Susan: But the folks that I was developing the show with were like,

Speaker:

Susan: it's probably going to be a pretty short show if all you do is take one story.

Speaker:

Susan: So that's how we end every episode after the interview, by hopefully getting

Speaker:

Susan: people's crazy, funny, weird, wild, wacky stories. My mom is an avid listener

Speaker:

Susan: and in her words, the more salacious, the better.

Speaker:

Susan: So you can truly hear just about anything on the loading dock.

Speaker:

Danny: It sounds, and as you mentioned, also there's like some crazy stories that you

Speaker:

Danny: would imagine would come through.

Speaker:

Danny: And speaking of your hospitality career, you started that by sleeping in your

Speaker:

Danny: car, events and parties.

Speaker:

Danny: I've got to assume that that must have been pretty a different kind of experience

Speaker:

Danny: from what you do now. No more sleeping in your car now.

Speaker:

Susan: No, it was horrible. So I ran an off-premise catering company in Tallahassee,

Speaker:

Susan: Florida, which is the state capital of Florida.

Speaker:

Susan: And during the legislative session, we would be so crazy busy that there wasn't

Speaker:

Susan: time to go home and sleep or change or do anything like that.

Speaker:

Susan: So I would have to like catch a nap in my car in between events.

Speaker:

Susan: Also, and this is so gross, but I often drove my car for like smaller caterings,

Speaker:

Susan: you know, if we were dropping something off or whatever.

Speaker:

Susan: And I at one point had like an half inch thick layer of baked beans in the trunk

Speaker:

Susan: of my car from it splashing out over the side of the hotel pans,

Speaker:

Susan: like very disgusting, very nitty gritty hard work.

Speaker:

Susan: Everyone thinks that the hotel business is a lot of hours and a lot of work,

Speaker:

Susan: but compared to off-premise catering, it was a cakewalk.

Speaker:

Danny: And I can imagine, so we spoke, you were from Atlanta, baked beans,

Speaker:

Danny: I would think, can be a bit pungent if left on a trunk or a car in hot weather.

Speaker:

Susan: It was so bad.

Speaker:

Danny: But now you've moved on from that. No more baked beans in your life,

Speaker:

Danny: or at least not in that way anyway.

Speaker:

Susan: Exactly. Although I do have a slight aversion to baked beans and now I'm starting

Speaker:

Susan: to put it together. Maybe that's why.

Speaker:

Danny: It's coming from your past, coming from your past. Yeah, I can imagine that

Speaker:

Danny: would be something. It put me off some point as well.

Speaker:

Danny: Well, hopefully we don't have an inversion. Nice move, little segue there.

Speaker:

Danny: Hopefully we don't have an inversion to any of the questions that we're going

Speaker:

Danny: to put you in the random question hot seat for.

Speaker:

Danny: So if you're ready, Susan, are you ready to jump into the random question hot seat?

Speaker:

Susan: I am so ready, nervous, and excited at the same time.

Speaker:

Danny: Awesome. Let me just bring up the random question generator and we will jump in.

Speaker:

Danny: Okay, interesting one to kick things off with actually. So Susan,

Speaker:

Danny: question number one, if you could relive any day of your life, what would you choose?

Speaker:

Danny: And what would you do differently? So a little two-paro there.

Speaker:

Susan: Oh my goodness. Okay, I can absolutely think of a day that was so amazingly fantastic.

Speaker:

Susan: I would love to relive it like once a quarter.

Speaker:

Susan: And that was on a trip to Europe with my husband to visit his brother,

Speaker:

Susan: who was stationed in Germany in the Air Force.

Speaker:

Susan: And we were going to a bunch of different places, but we went to Florence,

Speaker:

Susan: met up with some of my brother-in-law's friends, and took a day trip to Tuscany.

Speaker:

Susan: So there were six of us, five, six of us, crammed in this tiny little European

Speaker:

Susan: car with a private tour guide who took us from farm to farm,

Speaker:

Susan: olive oil grove to vineyard all throughout Tuscany.

Speaker:

Susan: And the last place we ended up, we were going to have lunch.

Speaker:

Susan: It just so happened to be my husband's birthday. And so the proprietors of this

Speaker:

Susan: vineyard where we were having lunch offered to let him learn to saber a bottle

Speaker:

Susan: of sparkling wine as sort of like the celebration of his birthday.

Speaker:

Susan: Now, this is probably as a result of the lunch, which included quite the significant

Speaker:

Susan: wine tasting alongside of it. But it was just the most magical experience.

Speaker:

Susan: I can still picture him saboring the top of that bottle of Prosecco.

Speaker:

Susan: And then on the way home, our private tour guide decided that we needed to have

Speaker:

Susan: a teeny tiny car karaoke.

Speaker:

Susan: And so was playing all these songs that he thought a bunch of weird Americans would like.

Speaker:

Susan: And they were all songs that we had never heard before.

Speaker:

Susan: So it was quite the experience. And we just sang along and pretended like we knew what we were doing.

Speaker:

Susan: It was absolutely top three life experience of all time. I wish I could do it once a week.

Speaker:

Danny: And like you mentioned there, Tuscany, that's a beautiful part of Europe.

Speaker:

Danny: It's like gorgeous. And obviously the vineyards there, you sampled, gratefully.

Speaker:

Danny: So I'm curious, what songs did the driver feel that you would enjoy?

Speaker:

Susan: I don't know. I think that we were giving an 80s vibe, like sort of the skating

Speaker:

Susan: rink, Madonna, NXSC kind of music.

Speaker:

Susan: But it wasn't that. I do not know what he was playing, but it was nothing that

Speaker:

Susan: I knew the words to. So I just...

Speaker:

Susan: Sang along and tried to fake it until we finished each tune.

Speaker:

Danny: Well, that's the best way, though. It's like I always, it reminds me of my uncle

Speaker:

Danny: when I used to live back in Scotland as a young teen.

Speaker:

Danny: He'd love to get up and sing, you know, at bars, well, not so much restaurants,

Speaker:

Danny: but bars and places like that.

Speaker:

Susan: Sing for his supper.

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, exactly. But he did not know a lot of songs. So he'd start off with the

Speaker:

Danny: words that were correct, but then me and I went to...

Speaker:

Danny: I don't know if that's a Scottish thing, but yeah, it sounds like,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, that kind of translates across the globe.

Speaker:

Susan: A hundred percent.

Speaker:

Danny: That is awesome. There's a guy here in Toronto. Well, I'm not in Toronto, but close enough.

Speaker:

Danny: He's like a cab driver, Uber driver kind of thing.

Speaker:

Danny: He's got his own channel on like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, et cetera.

Speaker:

Danny: And what he does, I think he's called Trip Guy, and I'll leave the link to his

Speaker:

Danny: channel in the show notes.

Speaker:

Danny: But what he does, when the guests, if you like, get into his cab,

Speaker:

Danny: like the passengers, he'll hand them, so he'll put on lights,

Speaker:

Danny: like big sort of, you know, LED lights to turn the car green,

Speaker:

Danny: blue, red, all that kind of cool stuff.

Speaker:

Danny: Give them a mic and they choose the song they want to sing from his collection.

Speaker:

Danny: So they know the song. It sounds like that'd be something that you'd probably

Speaker:

Danny: be more up for because at least you know the song, right?

Speaker:

Susan: Yes. Well, plus those karaoke machines will give you the words.

Speaker:

Susan: So even if you don't know, you can sort of figure it out.

Speaker:

Susan: Whereas just these random songs on the radio, I was a little bit lost.

Speaker:

Danny: I hear you. But no, that's a great memory. And because you're in the industry,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, the hospitality industry,

Speaker:

Danny: Do you ever get to, like, sorry, not quite replicate it, because obviously Tuscany

Speaker:

Danny: is Tuscany, but is there anything that's going to come close in your travels to that?

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, I would say because of the beautiful landscape and the vineyard of it all,

Speaker:

Susan: that being in the Napa Valley is so much like being in Tuscany and vice versa.

Speaker:

Susan: I did a consulting project in Napa many years ago for several months.

Speaker:

Susan: And so I was doing working at a hotel, the West Inverasa, Napa.

Speaker:

Susan: And I remember waking up the first morning because there was a huge time difference.

Speaker:

Susan: So I woke up at like five o'clock in the morning, just like wide awake and

Speaker:

Susan: And looking out the window and seeing hot air balloons, like floating across

Speaker:

Susan: the horizon and just thinking like, how is this work?

Speaker:

Susan: Like they're paying me to be here. This is insane. So definitely Napa is quite

Speaker:

Susan: the similar feel. And look, it looks similar too.

Speaker:

Danny: I've heard that. And anytime I see pictures of the Napa Valley in that region,

Speaker:

Danny: it's like you say, you've got all the vineyards and you've got like a sunset

Speaker:

Danny: that's glorious in the background.

Speaker:

Danny: And, you know, a lot of little birds or balloons floating across.

Speaker:

Danny: So that's part of my bucket list because I do like a nice wine.

Speaker:

Danny: So part of my bucket list is to do a proper, you know, tour somewhere where

Speaker:

Danny: it's got a really nice place like that.

Speaker:

Susan: Okay. Well, I have to tell you a secret. The general manager of that hotel,

Speaker:

Susan: of that Westin, his name is Don Schindel.

Speaker:

Susan: He's Canadian. In fact, he has a Canadian football league. Is that right?

Speaker:

Susan: CFL championship ring that he let me try on that weighs like about 15 pounds.

Speaker:

Susan: So maybe you have an in with him, the Canada connection.

Speaker:

Danny: But my buddy in Toronto, he runs his own marketing agency. He has a lot of connections,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, kind of like that. But I don't think it'd be that one. But that'd be awesome.

Speaker:

Danny: I'd have to just organise that. So that's on my bucket list anyway.

Speaker:

Danny: So I like that. That was a nice question to ease into the randomness.

Speaker:

Danny: So let's have a look then to see what we do at question number two.

Speaker:

Danny: This has been up before, but it's been a while back. And I kind of like questions like this.

Speaker:

Danny: So if it's okay, Susan, question number two. Would You Want to Know When Yule Day?

Speaker:

Susan: No, no way. I don't want to know. In fact, this is like a little bit crazy sounding.

Speaker:

Susan: So be cool. But ever since I was a little kid, I've always sort of fantasized.

Speaker:

Susan: I can't even believe I'm about to say this out loud. But I've always sort of

Speaker:

Susan: fantasized about dying in a rogue like drive by shooting or something like that,

Speaker:

Susan: because it would be so sudden.

Speaker:

Susan: You would have nothing leading up to it, no dread, no misery,

Speaker:

Susan: no discomfort, just like one day you're shopping and the next day you're gone.

Speaker:

Susan: Now, I really don't actually hope that I get shot, but I hope that I die completely

Speaker:

Susan: unexpectedly in my sleep at peace.

Speaker:

Danny: I think...

Speaker:

Danny: I was going to say, I think most people, not most people were your first example,

Speaker:

Danny: but I think most people, yeah, would like, would want it to be peaceful.

Speaker:

Danny: You know, you're asleep and you're not really aware of it.

Speaker:

Danny: I'm wondering, because I know the guest that had this question,

Speaker:

Danny: it was one of the early seasons.

Speaker:

Danny: So I can't recall the answer offhand. But the guest that had the question chose

Speaker:

Danny: to know in advance, only because from that point of view, you can maybe let

Speaker:

Danny: people know and ease them into,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, the people that would be left behind and prepare them.

Speaker:

Danny: But I don't know if that'd be the same.

Speaker:

Danny: I think that was more about if you had like that terminal wellness, for example.

Speaker:

Susan: I wonder if your answer is different if you have children versus not. I don't have children.

Speaker:

Susan: So, you know, I feel like there's probably a little bit less of the,

Speaker:

Susan: I mean, everybody I know is my same age, right?

Speaker:

Susan: We're all going to go at some point. So they don't need to worry about it.

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, no, that's a good point. I mean, I'm a little bit older than my wife.

Speaker:

Danny: So hopefully she'd live another 10 years, at least before, you know, after I clogged.

Speaker:

Danny: But yeah, it's interesting you mentioned kids, because anytime I see people

Speaker:

Danny: that have kids and parents die, it can be really hard for the kids afterwards.

Speaker:

Danny: I watch the Jack Osborne show on his video podcast and when his dad died and

Speaker:

Danny: passed, you can see it still tears him up today.

Speaker:

Danny: And I always wonder, can you try prep your kids for that?

Speaker:

Danny: So I guess you can't really prep people. Everybody's different, how they react to death.

Speaker:

Susan: I don't think so because I have experienced the death of loved ones recently.

Speaker:

Susan: Who we knew would be dying soon.

Speaker:

Susan: You know, we were just sort of waiting for it to happen.

Speaker:

Susan: And it still felt different when the moment happened. So like,

Speaker:

Susan: you're sad leading up to it.

Speaker:

Susan: You sort of get accustomed to the idea.

Speaker:

Susan: And then when it happens, you're sad all over again. There's no amount of preparation,

Speaker:

Susan: at least for me, there was no amount of preparation that would have changed my reaction.

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, I always wonder how our daughter would react. She's a weird one.

Speaker:

Danny: She's a teen, just became a teen last year. She'll be 14 next month, actually.

Speaker:

Danny: And she cares. She's a very caring soul.

Speaker:

Danny: But around death, like when our dogs passed, she was like, was there blood? Are they dead now?

Speaker:

Danny: It's very matter of fact in your face about death and no emotion.

Speaker:

Danny: And she was sad, but it was the same when her great-grandma passed and she asked

Speaker:

Danny: her grandma, so her grandma's mom died, And she asked her grandma,

Speaker:

Danny: so what happened? Was there blood? Is she dead now?

Speaker:

Danny: And this was about a week after the lady had passed. And obviously,

Speaker:

Danny: my wife's mom was distraught.

Speaker:

Danny: So she's very in your face. And I don't know if that's a good thing or not. What do you think?

Speaker:

Susan: I think everyone copes with sort of unknowns and grieving in different ways.

Speaker:

Susan: I mean, I probably have a tendency. First of all, I'm a crier,

Speaker:

Susan: so I will cry like if I get too happy, I'm crying, much less too sad.

Speaker:

Susan: But also I think I have a tendency to make maybe some slightly inappropriate

Speaker:

Susan: jokes, which probably doesn't please everyone in my life.

Speaker:

Susan: So I think there's a huge spectrum. It's also maybe trying to understand death

Speaker:

Susan: and trying to understand the sort of physical properties of it,

Speaker:

Susan: thinking that that will unlock understanding of the emotional properties.

Speaker:

Susan: Not that that's necessarily possible, but that may be what she's thinking.

Speaker:

Danny: That's a good, yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I don't want anybody to die,

Speaker:

Danny: so I can test that theory.

Speaker:

Danny: That's a good point.

Speaker:

Susan: Get a goldfish. That's a good practice.

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, we used to have beta fishes. We couldn't keep these poor little souls alive.

Speaker:

Danny: So we'll probably bypass that one. But yeah, I like that, actually.

Speaker:

Danny: And it's like you say, everybody's different from a joy point of view.

Speaker:

Danny: How people react to positivity can be different as well as negativity, right?

Speaker:

Danny: So I shall ask. I won't ask her. I'll just monitor her.

Speaker:

Danny: Next time a major event like that happens, I will monitor her and I will let you know how that goes.

Speaker:

Susan: Well, and here's a way maybe to test the theory is to give a detailed explanation

Speaker:

Susan: physically of what happened and see what,

Speaker:

Susan: then what is the reaction. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker:

Susan: Like, well, the heart stopped and then that caused the, you know,

Speaker:

Susan: I don't feel like getting into too much detail, but you know what I mean?

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, I'd prefer to put an explicit rating on this one. But yeah,

Speaker:

Danny: I hear you. It's just like, yeah, we'll try that for sure.

Speaker:

Danny: And like I say, I will update you. So you'll either get a happy update or a, what did you do?

Speaker:

Danny: What are you telling me to do? Update.

Speaker:

Susan: Okay, okay.

Speaker:

Danny: We will see. Well, that's a different one. It's a different one.

Speaker:

Danny: So let's have a look then at question number three.

Speaker:

Danny: And I feel this might be a lot, but I'm going to find out. Question number three,

Speaker:

Danny: Susan. How often do you use your phone?

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, my Lord. I use my phone all day, every day.

Speaker:

Susan: Here's the problem. I am a very avid reader, but I only read e-books like I read on a Kindle.

Speaker:

Susan: And my favorite way to read on a Kindle is on my phone.

Speaker:

Susan: So that is a very stupid habit to get into because if you're already holding

Speaker:

Susan: the phone and you're reading a novel, it's quite quick and very tempting to

Speaker:

Susan: slide right on over to TikTok,

Speaker:

Susan: watch a few videos, and then go back to your book.

Speaker:

Susan: I'm gonna tell you this though, I got an app maybe a week ago, maybe a little bit more,

Speaker:

Susan: I am going to sneak a peek at my phone because I cannot remember the name of the app.

Speaker:

Susan: But if you're searching for it, you can Google Hank Green Productivity App.

Speaker:

Susan: Okay, it's called Focus Friend.

Speaker:

Susan: This app I learned about on TikTok, of course.

Speaker:

Susan: It's a little bean and the bean knits socks.

Speaker:

Susan: So when you want to focus, you set a timer and the bean will knit socks for

Speaker:

Susan: the entire time that you don't touch your phone. Every time you touch your phone, you lose a sock.

Speaker:

Susan: When you've, when you're, you're going to be like, I never should have had this idiot on my show.

Speaker:

Susan: When your bean has knit enough socks, this, you can sell the socks in air quotes,

Speaker:

Susan: sell to buy furniture and accessories for your beans apartment.

Speaker:

Susan: It seems like utter nonsense, but for whatever reason, if you start the timer

Speaker:

Susan: and then you pick up your phone and it says, don't interrupt me.

Speaker:

Susan: And you're watching the Bean knitting socks, you're like, oh my God,

Speaker:

Susan: oh my God. And you like throw the phone away.

Speaker:

Susan: So listen, my point is this, I'm working on it.

Speaker:

Danny: But that's why I sort of gave that little preamble beforehand because I feel

Speaker:

Danny: that with your job and the industry you're in, it's very much always on kind

Speaker:

Danny: of, you know. Yes, yes. It's a 24-7 industry.

Speaker:

Danny: So I completely get that. I do love the sound of that app.

Speaker:

Danny: It's almost like it knows you've got bad habits, for example,

Speaker:

Danny: but it's showing you whether you can have a bad habit, but in a good way.

Speaker:

Susan: Yes.

Speaker:

Danny: It'd be really cool. And maybe it does this as well. I'm definitely going to

Speaker:

Danny: check it out because I can be really bad at, you know, going down that vortex

Speaker:

Danny: of YouTube, TikTok, everything. And I think, where did the last four hours go?

Speaker:

Danny: You mentioned, so obviously Knit sucks and then you can buy stuff for his apartment.

Speaker:

Danny: I mean, it'd be really cool if some of the stuff that you could sell maybe for

Speaker:

Danny: other users, you know, that could buy or even,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, if you're really good, an X amount of percentage of app profit or

Speaker:

Danny: whatever, whatever that looks like. I'm just waffling now.

Speaker:

Danny: Goes to, you know, like charities for kids with ADHD, anything like that.

Speaker:

Danny: You know, that'd be kind of a cool.

Speaker:

Susan: That's a good idea. There's a pro version of FocusFriend that I don't pay for.

Speaker:

Susan: So there may be all kinds of other options that I just don't know about.

Speaker:

Susan: I'm still very new to the sock knitting business. But once I learn more, I will share more.

Speaker:

Danny: Sock knitting business. I like it. And obviously, as you mentioned,

Speaker:

Danny: we can understand why you're on your phone a lot.

Speaker:

Danny: Is there an app that you wish you could use?

Speaker:

Danny: Take off, even though you'd miss it a lot, because you know that takes up a

Speaker:

Danny: lot of your time that doesn't need to?

Speaker:

Susan: That's a hard question to answer because some days and after some things happen,

Speaker:

Susan: in the United States. I wish that I had no apps. And I wish that I could stop

Speaker:

Susan: seeing how crazy things are getting in this country.

Speaker:

Susan: But so I guess my knee jerk answer was going to be Instagram.

Speaker:

Susan: But then Instagram brings me so much comedy and happiness and joy too,

Speaker:

Susan: that I would never want to give it up.

Speaker:

Susan: I think probably the answer with Instagram is to continuously reset your feed

Speaker:

Susan: so that you're focusing on the things that make you happy and not interacting

Speaker:

Susan: with things that bring you down so that you don't get more of it.

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, I hear that. I stopped using Twitter.

Speaker:

Danny: I can't call it X. I know it's called X, but I stopped using Twitter when it

Speaker:

Danny: was still Twitter because I just felt it was becoming really toxic.

Speaker:

Danny: And I can't be doing with that.

Speaker:

Danny: So I moved over to Blue Sky and was very specific about feeds I followed and

Speaker:

Danny: not getting recommendations. And I have like auto play switched off for videos

Speaker:

Danny: because I don't want to see something accidentally, especially,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, as you mentioned, news cycles, etc.

Speaker:

Danny: A lot of times show really horrible stuff to get clicks and views.

Speaker:

Danny: Right. So you don't want that in your life.

Speaker:

Susan: Absolutely.

Speaker:

Danny: I hear you. There's like a really cool. I mean, this is just like a really poor suggestion.

Speaker:

Danny: But there's a phone called like the Simple phone or something.

Speaker:

Danny: And it basically it all allows you to make calls, receive texts.

Speaker:

Danny: And I think that's it. And set alarms and there's nothing else.

Speaker:

Danny: You can't download apps or anything. And I've always tempted to kind of try

Speaker:

Danny: that, but I feel like yourself, Susan. I miss Instagram and the fun stuff you can see in there too.

Speaker:

Susan: Absolutely. Well, and you know, the other thing that I feel like it's important

Speaker:

Susan: to say because most people won't ever say this is I actually don't think that

Speaker:

Susan: being on your phone and screen time is like the devil that we believe it to be.

Speaker:

Susan: If I weren't doing that, I would be watching TV.

Speaker:

Susan: So I'm just watching TV on a different size screen.

Speaker:

Danny: No, one of my previous guests, Tim, Tim Truax, he's a Canadian,

Speaker:

Danny: and he was talking about, no, it wasn't Tim, sorry, it was Colin Gray from the podcast host.

Speaker:

Danny: And he was talking about the same thing where a lot of the time we look at our

Speaker:

Danny: kids being on their phones a lot and thinking it's bad.

Speaker:

Danny: But what he found was his daughter was playing Fortnite and basically the phone was on.

Speaker:

Danny: So her friends could FaceTime as a private group, you know, they're not letting

Speaker:

Danny: anybody in. And they could speak and talk and, you know, make plans in that

Speaker:

Danny: whilst working as a team on Fortnite.

Speaker:

Danny: So it's not, it was keeping up the art of conversation as opposed to just playing

Speaker:

Danny: this video game all the time. Right.

Speaker:

Danny: So I think there's more nuance than just having a six or eight inch screen in

Speaker:

Danny: front of you taking away your life, so to speak.

Speaker:

Susan: Agree.

Speaker:

Danny: All right. Well, I like that. And I do, I do like the fact that you,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, you have some bad habits and you've got that app that will help you.

Speaker:

Danny: And you know that, yeah, you could get rid of Instagram, but why should you?

Speaker:

Susan: Because Instagram's got great stuff too. I would laugh so much less if I got

Speaker:

Susan: rid of Instagram. I have a hilarious feed.

Speaker:

Susan: So that is where I get all my good jokes to steal.

Speaker:

Danny: Exactly. Well, I like that. I like that. It's a good mid-round question, if you like.

Speaker:

Danny: So on that note, let's have a look at question number four.

Speaker:

Danny: What is, and again, I'm curious because obviously you're in,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, around the food industry. What is your favorite pizza topping?

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, Lord, Danny, this is impossible. I love pizza. I love it so much.

Speaker:

Susan: I have so many different pizzas that I like for different reasons.

Speaker:

Susan: All right. The first, if I could only have one pizza topping for the rest of

Speaker:

Susan: my life, it would be pepperoni. Obviously.

Speaker:

Susan: Pepperoni is delicious. The little baby pepperonis that curl up on the sides

Speaker:

Susan: and collect like a little bit of the delicious pepperoni grease on the inside, A++, amen.

Speaker:

Susan: However, if I were getting a pizza buffet for the rest of my life,

Speaker:

Susan: I would have pepperoni pizza, absolutely.

Speaker:

Susan: But then I would have a Hawaiian pizza, yes, with pineapple, bacon, ham, etc., A+.

Speaker:

Susan: I would have an anchovy pizza with anchovies galore, salty, weird,

Speaker:

Susan: delicious. Nobody else would want it but me. A+.

Speaker:

Susan: And then there's a pizza place in my neighborhood called Grant Central,

Speaker:

Susan: and they make something called, I think it's called the Deluxe Vegetarian or

Speaker:

Susan: the Supreme Vegetarian or Veggie Supreme, something like that.

Speaker:

Susan: But, you know, it has all the vegetables, but then it has little pieces of fried

Speaker:

Susan: eggplant, like what you use for eggplant Parmesan.

Speaker:

Susan: And then because we're contrary, we add Italian sausage to the veggie pizza. OMG delicious.

Speaker:

Susan: How much more time do we have? Because I could keep going on and on and on about

Speaker:

Susan: pizza, but hopefully that's enough.

Speaker:

Danny: No, and every single one of them, and I've said this before with other guests,

Speaker:

Danny: I have to stop asking food questions because every time you'll finish an episode

Speaker:

Danny: where food comes up, I'm salivating.

Speaker:

Susan: No, I'm so hungry.

Speaker:

Danny: That was mentioned in that episode. And pizza, I mean, pizzas are,

Speaker:

Danny: it's one of these staples, right?

Speaker:

Susan: Pizza is a perfect food.

Speaker:

Danny: Exactly. And I feel I'm glad you said Hawaiian. I'm really glad because that gets so much hate.

Speaker:

Susan: I know. It's so good. People are dumb.

Speaker:

Danny: It's good.

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, I forgot one. It's related to Hawaiian. There's a pizza place in Atlanta called Freedy.

Speaker:

Susan: And this is going to sound gross, but it is so good.

Speaker:

Susan: It's just like plain, maybe white sauce pizza. I can't remember.

Speaker:

Susan: Or garlic and olive oil, whatever. Like not red sauce is my point. Right.

Speaker:

Susan: And then they put pineapple and gorgonzola cheese.

Speaker:

Susan: Sounds disgusting. Tastes amazing. Highly recommend.

Speaker:

Danny: I may have to try and I'll find that website.

Speaker:

Danny: Hopefully they've got a website and look to see what they put on.

Speaker:

Danny: I'm going to have to try to do that myself and I'll leave links to these places in the show notes.

Speaker:

Danny: So, you know, if anybody wants to check out them, I'm curious though.

Speaker:

Danny: On the pizza front, are you a deep dish or are you a thin crust?

Speaker:

Susan: I like thinner crust, but I don't like crust so thin that it's like a cracker.

Speaker:

Susan: I like New York style where it's thin, big slice of pizza that you can fold in half.

Speaker:

Susan: And I really like just very delicious crust.

Speaker:

Susan: Deep dish, not for me. What about you?

Speaker:

Danny: No, I think it's weird. I think it depends on the pizza and where you're getting

Speaker:

Danny: it from because I've had some great deep dishes but I do tend to like the ones

Speaker:

Danny: where as you mentioned New York and you're holding this massive slice and you've

Speaker:

Danny: got to hold it with two hands and stop it flopping at the triangle part because

Speaker:

Danny: it needs to flop as a pizza.

Speaker:

Danny: So I feel that's my preference too. Maybe the crust, maybe a thicker crust.

Speaker:

Danny: And I know some places do stuffed crust now so you might have like garlic and,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, herpes cheese or something.

Speaker:

Danny: But yeah, I'm very much like you. I like to be not too thick that I have to

Speaker:

Danny: take an age to eat it. I want to scrunch it down.

Speaker:

Susan: Yeah, no knife and fork. No knife and fork with pizza. I want to be able to,

Speaker:

Susan: most of the time, pick it up and eat it.

Speaker:

Danny: Exactly. So it sounds like you'd be a New York versus a Chicago type pizza.

Speaker:

Susan: Thousand percent. Listen, if all I could have is Chicago style pizza,

Speaker:

Susan: I'm still going to have the pizza.

Speaker:

Susan: But if I got to have a choice, yes, New York for sure.

Speaker:

Danny: Okay, well, I shall make sure to point listeners over to your site so they can

Speaker:

Danny: debate the joys and the perils of New York versus Chicago and keep you busy

Speaker:

Danny: there. I'll get them to tag you on Instagram, actually.

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, fantastic.

Speaker:

Danny: Awesome. So that was like, and again, I'm salivating. So let's move on from

Speaker:

Danny: the food question because I will start to want to actually make that food.

Speaker:

Danny: Okay. Yeah, I like this one, actually. This is a nice one to sort of finish off with.

Speaker:

Danny: I'm curious about this, because you mentioned, you know, you've got your husband

Speaker:

Danny: who's done his art and you've got your career, etc.

Speaker:

Danny: Susan, for question number five, what is the ideal age to get married?

Speaker:

Susan: Ooh, what a question. This is controversial, I think.

Speaker:

Susan: I was 31 when I got married, but my husband and I started dating when I was 23.

Speaker:

Susan: I have seen many, many, many people that I know get married at age 25,

Speaker:

Susan: and he and I were together when we were 25.

Speaker:

Susan: So I think 25 is the youngest you can be without being too young to get married.

Speaker:

Susan: But I still, my gut tells me that you want to be late 20s, early 30s,

Speaker:

Susan: just so that you don't regret your decision.

Speaker:

Susan: What about you? How old were you when you got married?

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah, so I was 37 when I got married.

Speaker:

Danny: So yeah, a good few years back, aging myself there.

Speaker:

Danny: But yeah, I feel that was good because I was able to get any weird stuff out

Speaker:

Danny: of the way, you know, and then just concentrate my time on my partner, stroke wife.

Speaker:

Danny: But I do also see the other side where you see high school sweethearts and they've

Speaker:

Danny: been together 30, 40, 50 years. I think my wife's grandparents were that actually.

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, wow.

Speaker:

Danny: Not high school, but they were, I think they got married and I could be wrong

Speaker:

Danny: but I think they got married around about the Second World War period,

Speaker:

Danny: so they met as part of like a blackout you know and you got chatting and you

Speaker:

Danny: know when you went underground to the cellars or whatever it was to stop bombs

Speaker:

Danny: etc I think that's what was happening.

Speaker:

Susan: That's romantic well plus when you're going through something like that you're

Speaker:

Susan: like the world's probably going to end let's just go ahead and get hitched

Speaker:

Danny: Yeah that's true and they were so happy they were so happy if I had to give

Speaker:

Danny: a template for how to find true love and happiness in a marriage,

Speaker:

Danny: I would point to these guys.

Speaker:

Danny: They're both passing unfortunately, but yeah, it's just,

Speaker:

Danny: I do feel, now do you feel like you can have a younger marriage,

Speaker:

Danny: so like 20, 21, even 25, as you mentioned, but kids should maybe wait until

Speaker:

Danny: you're in your thirties.

Speaker:

Danny: So, or is that something? Because I know you mentioned that you don't have kids.

Speaker:

Susan: Yeah, I don't have kids. My sister got married when she was 25,

Speaker:

Susan: I think, and then had her daughter when she was 27 or 28.

Speaker:

Susan: I'm making that up. It's something like that. And she's incredibly happy,

Speaker:

Susan: has a wonderful now grown adult daughter.

Speaker:

Susan: So I think it really probably depends on the person and the couple versus a hard and fast rule.

Speaker:

Susan: And if there is a hard and fast rule, I am not the person to make it.

Speaker:

Danny: Well, it's interesting because we've got friends that have got kids and not got kids.

Speaker:

Danny: And the friends that do have kids had them at different times of their life

Speaker:

Danny: compared to other friends.

Speaker:

Danny: And the ones that don't have kids are 100% purely happy.

Speaker:

Danny: They're not even bothered about kids. So I think it's like you say,

Speaker:

Danny: I feel like society, hopefully, isn't as well.

Speaker:

Danny: To be a happy family, you need to be the man, the woman, the two nuclear kids.

Speaker:

Susan: Right, right.

Speaker:

Danny: I think the stereotype that used to be, right? It's like hopefully better now,

Speaker:

Danny: though I can still see there's still mindsets that need to change on that front too.

Speaker:

Susan: Absolutely.

Speaker:

Danny: Well, I like that. I feel like I know my listeners.

Speaker:

Danny: If I look at my data, my listeners are between 25 and 44. That's the prime age

Speaker:

Danny: group. And it's a pretty even split, actually, between male and female.

Speaker:

Danny: So there's food for thought. You're in that age bracket.

Speaker:

Danny: Susan's just told you what her thoughts are. I've just shared what happened to me.

Speaker:

Danny: If you ever feel that we did talk sense in this episode, now you know what age to get married at.

Speaker:

Susan: Yes.

Speaker:

Danny: But I feel that was a nice way to end your time in the random questions hot seat, Susan.

Speaker:

Danny: As is only fair, I've had you in there for about 30 minutes on the hot seat

Speaker:

Danny: there, 30, just under 35 minutes.

Speaker:

Danny: It's only fair to hand over the question asking baton to you.

Speaker:

Susan: All right, Danny, my random question for you is, what is the worst piece of

Speaker:

Susan: advice you've ever been given?

Speaker:

Danny: The worst piece of advice?

Speaker:

Danny: Uh i'm trying

Speaker:

Danny: to think of like i got advice from parents that didn't work out

Speaker:

Danny: or teachers or anything like that or even bosses um

Speaker:

Danny: actually yeah so it's it's not

Speaker:

Danny: quite advice um but it was advice on

Speaker:

Danny: someone's point of view and thinking if that's allowed because

Speaker:

Danny: i can't think of advice offhand but this put this like sticks

Speaker:

Danny: with me um so when i was younger as i mentioned i lived in

Speaker:

Danny: scotland and at that time certain attitudes

Speaker:

Danny: certainly my family's side or certain generations of

Speaker:

Danny: my family had a very bigoted ignorant

Speaker:

Danny: attitude and i was told it was a so

Speaker:

Danny: that where we lived in scotland it was like scottish tenements very working

Speaker:

Danny: class you know um area and there was a it's all white people and then there

Speaker:

Danny: was an indian family moved in around about when i was maybe eight nine year

Speaker:

Danny: old or something and my family just told me horrible things about indians and people and such as.

Speaker:

Danny: And they told me not to play with their little girl who's the same age as me

Speaker:

Danny: because they're Indian, they're clearly going to be horrible,

Speaker:

Danny: smelly people. Horrible things to say.

Speaker:

Danny: And it took me a while, you know, when I was like a late teen,

Speaker:

Danny: early, like a man in my early 20s, to really get away from all that.

Speaker:

Danny: And when I moved away, I moved away from Scotland to work in England and that's

Speaker:

Danny: when I really started to get a broader view of the world, thankfully.

Speaker:

Danny: And I was sat beside her, I got placed to sit beside her at school at my primary

Speaker:

Danny: school by a teacher and she wasn't smelly.

Speaker:

Danny: She wasn't a horrible person. She was a lovely little girl that just wanted

Speaker:

Danny: to be liked by other kids in the classroom.

Speaker:

Danny: So I feel the advice not to, you know,

Speaker:

Danny: to steer clear of these people because

Speaker:

Danny: they're not us they're not like us they're gonna be horrible i think

Speaker:

Danny: that was really bad for want of a

Speaker:

Danny: simplistic term that was bad advice but it was ignorant advice obviously

Speaker:

Danny: and i'm i'm i'm always like sorry that i listened to that um because i didn't

Speaker:

Danny: know any better as a kid and it took me a few years to get over that and understand

Speaker:

Danny: they were completely wrong and because of that i then started to have a very

Speaker:

Danny: difficult relationship it with my family and their points of view.

Speaker:

Danny: So I would say probably that actually.

Speaker:

Susan: It's interesting that it took a trip to another place that was different from

Speaker:

Susan: where you were from to sort of help shake that loose.

Speaker:

Susan: I think that that is such a great illustration of why travel is so important

Speaker:

Susan: because the more places you go, the more you realize A,

Speaker:

Susan: our similarities regardless of our differences, but B,

Speaker:

Susan: that the things that make us different are also the things that make us exciting

Speaker:

Susan: and interesting and special and unique and fun.

Speaker:

Susan: So I think your story is certainly a tribute to the power of travel.

Speaker:

Danny: Oh, 100%. And like I said, I mean, it's,

Speaker:

Danny: I feel that a lot of that was maybe generational. They're very typical.

Speaker:

Danny: And I say this as a Scotsman myself. So that generation, my grandad anyway,

Speaker:

Danny: my dad or stepdad, was very much typical of Scotsmen at that time.

Speaker:

Danny: This was like we're talking mid-80s, like late 70s, mid-80s.

Speaker:

Danny: So, yeah, and travel was so key. It's like my first guest on this new season,

Speaker:

Danny: Keisha TK Dutas, who I believe, you know, she mentioned that about travel and,

Speaker:

Danny: you know, stereotypical, you know, people thinking that certain cultures don't

Speaker:

Danny: travel when they do. So, yeah, I rambled there. I apologize.

Speaker:

Danny: Great question. I appreciate you asking that, Susan.

Speaker:

Susan: Well, it was my pleasure to put you on the spot since I've been on the spot

Speaker:

Susan: for this whole conversation.

Speaker:

Danny: It's only fair. It's only fair. So, as I mentioned, I mean, I've really enjoyed

Speaker:

Danny: chatting to you and getting to know you and hearing your answers today.

Speaker:

Danny: So I appreciate that. Thank you for bringing them and sharing that with us.

Speaker:

Danny: For our listeners that want to, you know, learn about you, what you do in the

Speaker:

Danny: industry, you know, listen to your podcast, check out all the cool things you

Speaker:

Danny: do, or maybe even sneak us a few nifty dollars to buy some of your husband's art.

Speaker:

Danny: Where's the best place to connect and listen and etc?

Speaker:

Susan: Well, my podcast is called Top Floor and the website is topfloorpodcast.com.

Speaker:

Susan: The Instagram handle for Top Floor is topfloorpod. And then I spend a lot of

Speaker:

Susan: time running my mouth and sharing my unsolicited opinion on LinkedIn.

Speaker:

Susan: And so you can find me. I'm Susan Barry on LinkedIn and Top Floor is also on

Speaker:

Susan: LinkedIn with pretty frequently updated content.

Speaker:

Susan: So we'd love to see and hear listeners anywhere I can.

Speaker:

Danny: Awesome. And I will be sure, as always, to leave links to those in the show

Speaker:

Danny: notes. So whatever app you're listening to this episode on or you're listening

Speaker:

Danny: on the website, just check the show notes out and all the links will be there

Speaker:

Danny: for the good stuff to take you over to Susan.

Speaker:

Danny: So again, Susan, thanks so much for appearing on today's 5 Random Questions.

Speaker:

Susan: Oh, this is so much fun. Thanks for having me.

Speaker:

Danny: Thanks for listening to 5 Random Questions. And if this was your first time

Speaker:

Danny: here, feel free to hit follow and check out past episodes.

Speaker:

Danny: If you enjoyed this week's episode, I'd love for you to leave a review on the

Speaker:

Danny: app you're currently listening on.

Speaker:

Danny: And if you know someone else that would enjoy the show, be sure to send them

Speaker:

Danny: this way. It's very much appreciated.

Speaker:

Danny: Until the next time, keep asking those questions.

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About the Podcast

5 Random Questions
Unexpected questions. Unfiltered answers.
What do you get when you ask smart, curious people five completely random questions? You get real stories, weird tangents, and conversations they’ve never had before.

On the award-winning 5 Random Questions, host Danny Brown invites creators, entrepreneurs, and fascinating humans to skip the pitches and ditch the talking points - and just show up as themselves.

There’s no script. Just five surprising prompts dropped throughout a relaxed, unpredictable conversation. Think laughter, awkward hypotheticals, personal confessions, and the kind of answers that can only come from being caught completely off-guard.

Every guest also flips the mic and asks Danny a random question of their own - because fair’s fair.

If Hot Ones and WTF with Marc Maron had a podcast baby, this would be it - minus the hot sauce, but with all the spice.

New episodes weekly. Always real. Sometimes ridiculous. Never boring.

> Winner of the Best Interview Podcast at the 2025 Ear Worthy Podcast Awards
> Featured by Apple Podcasts and Forbes
> Recognized as one of the Five Best Independent Podcasts of 2024
> Part of the Mercury Podcast Network - for more Mercury podcasts, head to www.mercurypodcasts.com
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About your host

Profile picture for Danny Brown

Danny Brown

Danny Brown is the host of the award-winning 5 Random Questions, the show with unexpected questions and unfiltered answers. He's also hosted, and co-hosted, several other podcasts - if you called him a serial podcaster, you wouldn't be wrong! He's been in the podcasting space for over 10 years, and has the scars to prove it.

He's the Head of Podcaster Support and Experience at Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast hosting, distribution, analytics, and monetization platform for the serious indie podcaster.

He lives in beautiful Muskoka, Ontario, Canada with his wife and two kids, where he spends winters in front of a cozy fire and summers by the lake. Well, when he finds time away from podcasting, of course...