Stay StarryEyed

Liz Seelye
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Business
  • Weekly

Stay StarryEyed is where visionary brand and business leaders go to stay creative and ready for what’s next. Each episode delivers real-world strategies, bold ideas, and new inspiration to help you move your brand and business forward faster. Hosted by Liz Seelye, founder of StarryEyed Strategy, you’ll hear candid conversations with some of the world’s most creative CMOs, founders, and innovators. Together, we reveal the insights, trends, and tools that turn brand potential into lasting impact. From breakthrough brand positioning to industry-altering innovation, Stay StarryEyed gives you the inspiration and information you need to make your big ideas reality.

  1. Oct 16

    How to Build a Brand That Gets Better as It Gets Bigger with Eric Knott (Tiki Taco)

    Growth creates opportunity. It can also create distance from your customers, your team, and the equities that made your brand better and different than the competition in the first place. Eric Knott knows how quickly that can happen. After starting his restaurant career with Outback Steakhouse, he found his sweet spot in emerging brands. Today, as CEO of Tiki Taco, he’s applying what he learned from bigger brands while protecting the advantages of being small. As Tiki Taco grows, Eric shares how the team is building for what comes next—from intentionally pausing between waves of expansion to using customer data, real-time feedback, and AI to make better decisions without losing the human side of hospitality. In this episode, you’ll learn: ✨Why Tiki Taco plans to pause after reaching 10 locations, strengthen, and grow again ✨How an unannounced opening helps teams learn in real-world conditions before the crowds ✨Why you should use customer journeys to personalize communication for repeat business ✨How to use technology and AI to eliminate low-value work and where to redirect the effort ✨Why the best ideas should come from your frontline teams who are closest to your customers Eric’s Creative Inspiration Book: The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni Brand: Apple and Jordan Beverage: Hendrick’s and soda with lime Songs: “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin and “Juicy” by The Notorious B.I.G.

    How to Build a Brand That Gets Better as It Gets Bigger with Eric Knott (Tiki Taco)

  2. Oct 1

    The Halloween Candy Report: What’s Trending, What’s Next & What Brands Can Learn with Elizabeth Parker Kuhn (Candy Industry)

    Liz Parker Kuhn has spent more than a decade covering candy, snacks, bakery, and the brands behind them as Senior Editor of Candy Industry and Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery. Just in time for Halloween, she shares the latest innovations, flavors, and formats to watch (and taste). From Nerds Gummy Clusters, Skittles Gummy Crystals and Tootsie Hoots to new OREO LTOs, better-for-you gummies, unexpected brand collaborations, and what could finally dethrone pumpkin spice, this episode is sweet inspiration for brand builders in any category. In this episode, you’ll learn: ✨ Why the best innovation often takes what consumers already love and makes it new again ✨ How legacy brands like Hershey, Tootsie Roll, and Haribo fortify the core as they innovate ✨ Why texture is becoming as important as flavor with how it shows up in new products ✨ How brands use social media, listening, and consumer behavior to spot emerging ideas ✨ Why knowing exactly who you’re for can help your brand stand out in a crowded category Liz’s Creative Inspiration Book: Anything by Jodi Picoult Brand: Feastables/Mr. Beast Beverage: Maple Old Fashioned Song: “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift

  3. Sep 18

    Your Job Won’t Love You Back: How to Define Success on Your Own Terms with Allison Hill (Roark Capital)

    How often do we introduce ourselves by what we do? Our job titles become part of our identity. Promotions become proof we’re succeeding. And when a job changes or ends, it can leave us questioning more than what comes next. But we are so much more than what we do for a living. Allison Hill knows we can define success differently. She is the Chief Social Impact & Content Officer at Roark Capital, the private equity firm behind Arby’s, Sonic, Cinnabon, Orangetheory Fitness, and more. She is also a mom, philanthropist, and author of the new book Your Job Won’t Love You Back: 12 Principles to Live in Alignment with Your Heart. For 30 years, her career has taken her from global work at Sprint and Coca-Cola to entrepreneurship, marketing, and now social impact. She’s confirmed how to create a career you love without letting it become your identity, and how to build brands and cultures with the same kind of clarity. In this episode, you’ll learn: ✨ Why your identity should be more than your career, especially when jobs change or end ✨ How following what you want to learn can lead to unexpected career opportunities ✨ How to identify what energizes you and use it to guide your next career decision ✨ Why defining what your brand uniquely owns should come before marketing it ✨ Why listening before leading can help you build stronger teams and cultures A conversation for ambitious leaders who want to build successful careers without losing sight of the people, passions, and purpose that make a successful life. ❤️ Tune in for Your Job Won’t Love You Back: How to Define Success on Your Own Terms with Allison Hill. Link in comments.👇 #StayStarryEyed #Leadership #RedefiningSuccess Allison’s Creative Inspiration Book: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt Brand: Dolly Parton Beverage: Bacardi and Diet Coke Song: “Odds Are” by Barenaked Ladies Allison's book, Your Job Won't Love You Back, is available now!

    Your Job Won’t Love You Back: How to Define Success on Your Own Terms with Allison Hill (Roark Capital)

  4. Sep 3

    How to Build a Category-Defining Brand by Listening to Customers with Tracey Pickett (Hairbrella)

    The best businesses don't start with a bang. They start with a small problem someone finally decided to solve. Tracey Pickett is the founder and CEO of Hairbrella, an eight-figure brand she built from a single patented rain hat into a multi-category platform for hair protection. A former intellectual property attorney, she holds multiple patents, has raised venture capital, and has been featured on Good Morning America and Oprah's Favorite Things. Tracey shares Hairbrella's path from a frustrating rainy day to a data-driven platform shaped by a decade of customer feedback. She shares how a Kickstarter campaign, thousands of customer emails, and a willingness to launch before she felt ready informed every decision that followed, and how she's using AI to map the customer journey end to end and bring new products to market faster than ever (and you can too). In this episode, you'll learn: ✨How to validate an idea by launching before it's ready and letting customers shape it ✨Why a direct line to customers, not just data, is the fastest path to product-market fit ✨How you can expand a single product to create a complete, new category ✨How to use AI to shorten the distance between a new idea and a scalable product ✨Why people buy the result, not the product, and what that means for your ads Tracey's Creative Inspiration Book: Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson Brand: Bombas Beverage: Classic margarita with LALO tequila Song: "Interstellar Love" by Thundercat

    How to Build a Category-Defining Brand by Listening to Customers with Tracey Pickett (Hairbrella)

  5. Aug 20

    How to Build an Innovation Roadmap Customers Crave with Mindy Armstrong (Tropical Smoothie Cafe)

    Why do some new products take off while others quietly disappear? It comes down to how well the team creating them knows their customer. Mindy Armstrong is the VP of Menu Innovation at Tropical Smoothie Cafe, bringing more than 20 years of culinary and marketing experience. Before Tropic Time, she led menu innovation at Perkins and Buffalo Wild Wings. She also serves on FSR's Next Gen Council and the Legacy Board for Women in Restaurant Leadership. Mindy shares why she starts every new role by building relationships, how she's learned to customize her communication style for every collaborator, and what a consumer-centered innovation process looks like. She also gets candid about how to balance your loyal customer base with appealing to a new generation. In this episode, you'll learn: ✨ Why the best innovation starts with strong relationships, not just big ideas ✨ How to ensure your customer (not internal opinions) drives business decisions ✨ How to bring customers into the innovation process from early ideas to launch ✨ How to build an innovation roadmap around needs, occasions, and opportunities ✨ How to uncover equities customers love and turn them into new brand growth A conversation for brand leaders who want to build stronger teams, create better ideas, and turn consumer understanding into an innovation pipeline that just gets better. Mindy’s Creative Inspiration Books: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, North Woods by Daniel Mason Brands: Hawkers, Mendocino Farms Beverage: Pickle pea martini Song: Anything by Macklemore

    How to Build an Innovation Roadmap Customers Crave with Mindy Armstrong (Tropical Smoothie Cafe)

  6. Aug 6

    How to Build a "Damn Good" Recognition Culture with Paul Macaluso (Torchy's Tacos)

    What separates leaders who talk about culture from leaders who actually create it? Paul Macaluso is CEO of Torchy's Tacos, the Austin-based brand known for its award-winning queso and "Damn Good" tacos. He brings 30 years of experience, most recently as president and CEO of Another Broken Egg Cafe. He also held senior leadership roles at Go To Foods across McAlister’s Deli, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and more. Paul's path started three decades ago as a general manager at Taco Bell, a role he still credits as the foundation for everything that followed. Paul shares how he planned his rise from restaurant front lines to president and CEO with disciplined goal-setting, and how that same discipline now shapes how he improves the unique culture at Torchy's. He shares inside info about their recognition program, why he added "service minded" as a core company value, and how a simple shift in the corporate office changed how teams are supported. He also opens up about how he sets and achieves his greatest goals. In this episode, you'll learn: ✨How to make big dreams reality by breaking them into a plan of small steps ✨How to turn tough feedback into the growth that gets you promoted ✨What it takes to make company values feel real instead of just words on a wall ✨How little recognition moments can have an outsized impact on team culture ✨Why cross-functional experience makes marketers better brand leaders Whether you're early in your career or leading a company, this is an inspiring reminder that the goals you set for yourself can become the culture you build for everyone else. Paul's Creative Inspiration Book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruis Brand: Nike Beverage: Old Fashioned with Woodford Reserve

    How to Build a "Damn Good" Recognition Culture with Paul Macaluso (Torchy's Tacos)

  7. Jul 23

    How to Make Sustainability a Business Advantage with Saloni Doshi (EcoEnclose)

    Doing the right thing and protecting your margins don't have to be opposite goals. You just need to know where to start. Saloni Doshi is CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at EcoEnclose, an industry-leading provider of sustainable packaging for leading e-commerce brands. She shares how she helps brands like Crocs and Chö Chocolates create packaging that strengthens sustainability impact with a North Star that guides every decision she makes. Before acquiring EcoEnclose, Saloni worked in regenerative agriculture, co-founded Fresh Takes Kitchen to expand healthy food access, and held leadership roles at Teach For America. She also offers practical advice for leaders who want purpose and profit, and why the boldest sustainability innovations often come from the smallest brands. In this episode, you'll learn: ✨Why defining your North Star early makes decisions easier and growth faster ✨How to evaluate sustainability investments through both business and brand impact ✨Why circular design is the next frontier for packaging innovation ✨Where to start if you want to make your brand more sustainable ✨How purpose-driven brands create stronger loyalty, engagement, and growth A must-listen for leaders who want a clear filter for hard decisions, and proof that purpose and profit can grow together. Saloni's Creative Inspiration Book: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert Brand: Cotopaxi Beverage: Tequila soda with Lalo Tequila Song: "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones

  8. Jul 10

    How to Turn AI into Action with Tammy Billings (Signal Flare AI)

    What if the real advantage of AI isn’t the model, but the context you give it? Tammy Billings is Vice President of Business Development at Signal Flare AI and one of the most knowledgeable leaders in restaurant technology. After a career spanning entertainment, restaurant marketing, and technology, Tammy has become a trusted translator between tech and the leaders who need to use it to make better decisions. Tammy shares how AI is changing the way brands bring together sales, customer feedback, pricing, market conditions, and operational data to make smarter decisions. But her advice is refreshingly simple: start small, keep experimenting, and never underestimate the context and human judgment to turn information into action. In this episode, you’ll learn: ✨Why context, not just data or AI, is the key to making better business decisions ✨How to distinguish true decision intelligence from just another dashboard ✨Why AI should augment judgment, not autonomously make decisions ✨How to start small, experiment with tools, and build stronger AI capabilities ✨ Why helping people and making connections is a powerful way to lead A conversation for brand leaders who want to move beyond AI experimentation and make smarter decisions that truly move businesses forward. Tammy’s Creative Inspiration Book: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson and Influencer by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler Brand: YETI Beverage: Vodka soda, Aperol spritz, or bubbles Song: “Joan of Arc” by Madonna

    How to Turn AI into Action with Tammy Billings (Signal Flare AI)
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Stay StarryEyed is where visionary brand and business leaders go to stay creative and ready for what’s next. Each episode delivers real-world strategies, bold ideas, and new inspiration to help you move your brand and business forward faster. Hosted by Liz Seelye, founder of StarryEyed Strategy, you’ll hear candid conversations with some of the world’s most creative CMOs, founders, and innovators. Together, we reveal the insights, trends, and tools that turn brand potential into lasting impact. From breakthrough brand positioning to industry-altering innovation, Stay StarryEyed gives you the inspiration and information you need to make your big ideas reality.

Information

  • Creator
    Liz Seelye
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © StarryEyed Strategy
  • Show Website
    Stay StarryEyed