Quick Informal Government Summit
Susan Taylor, CEO and president of Juice It Up, shares a take a look at her profession, achievements and trade developments forward of her look at Quick Informal Government Summit 2025.
Picture: Willie Lawless/ Networld Media Group
July 18, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Managing Editor, Networld Media Group
In anticipation of the upcoming Quick Informal Government Summit, FastCasual.com is spotlighting panelists taking part within the annual trade occasion.
Juice It Up CEO and President Susan Taylor will share perception on the “The Geography of Revenue: Location Intelligence for Restaurant Success” session aimed toward offering restaurant house owners with the information and instruments to optimize monetary efficiency throughout all places.
Occurring 20 years, the Quick Informal Government Summit has been the premier gathering for top-level restaurant executives trying to innovate, join and elevate their manufacturers. This 12 months’s occasion is going down October 5-7 in Austin, Texas.
The summit is run by Networld Media Group, publishers of Fastcasual.com, QSRweb and Pizza Market. It’s considered one of a number of main trade conferences all year long. Click on right here to register for the Quick Informal Government Summit. The following Networld Media Group occasion is the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit going down March 16-18, 2026 in San Diego, California. Prime restaurant leaders will spend two and a half days of networking, inspiring tales and confirmed methods.
Describe your present position.
Because the CEO of a tenured and profitable QSR model, my position is pivotal and far-reaching, encompassing the strategic course, operational excellence and cultural basis of the model. I’m liable for steering the Juice It Up! into its subsequent part of development whereas upholding its established legacy for high quality acai bowls, and handcrafted smoothies, bowls and meals. I’m fortunate to steer a cross-functional that’s centered on our franchise house owners success and innovating for the model’s future success.
What was your first-ever profession position and what’s one essential lesson you realized from it?
My first profession position out of faculty was as a discipline consultant for a California assemblywoman, liable for speaking, working with and downside fixing together with her constituents within the discipline workplace. I realized to pay attention and attempt to discover options that have been equitable for all. Principally customer support 101.
What impressed you to work in your trade?
I’ve at all times labored in eating places. The sphere consultant job was the one non-food job I’ve ever had. I like the staff dynamic of working in eating places to perform the every day objectives collectively. I’m very inventive and love the flexibility to offer a terrific product and expertise that makes a distinction in a visitor’s day.
What do you get pleasure from most about your present position?
The power to work with my staff which can be at completely different phases of their profession and serving to them be taught and develop. I additionally love the flexibility to strategically take a look at the present state of the enterprise and plan for what a visitor needs now and within the subsequent ten years. The quick informal enterprise has developed over the previous 30 years, and it’s thrilling to look towards what is feasible within the subsequent 20 years from a meals, beverage and tech perspective.
What’s a standard false impression folks have about what you do?
I feel folks assume {that a} CEO is much faraway from the day-to-day enterprise or do not generally perceive what it’s like on the retailer stage. I’ve expertise from all ranges, and I like to be in shops with operators and franchise house owners and spend time on how their enterprise is performing and get suggestions on how I can and my staff higher assist. I like with the ability to join with friends and get their perspective on our model, too. A few of our greatest improvements come from franchisees and friends.
What’s one profession achievement you are most pleased with?
I’ve at all times endeavored to be a mentor, and a coach with those who I’ve labored with, actively investing within the potential of my staff. It is an achievement that has ripple results, as I discover that these I’ve helped typically go on to do the identical for others.
What trade developments do you assume are presently over-hyped and why?
Extreme use of practical elements with out clear profit or style. For a tenured and profitable QSR, the bottom line is to know elementary shifts in shopper preferences (e.g., demand for comfort, worth, freshness and personalization) slightly than getting swept up in each new meals pattern. Innovation ought to serve a transparent enterprise objective and improve the core model expertise.
If you happen to weren’t working in your present discipline, what would you be doing as an alternative?
I would be a photographer.
What do you do to have enjoyable outdoors of labor?
I’ve season tickets to the Hollywood Bowl and attend 15 to twenty concert events in the summertime.
The place did you develop up and the way did your upbringing impression the particular person you’re at this time?
I grew up in California, the primary 11 years in Southern California after which the subsequent 15 in Northern California. My mother and father positioned a excessive worth on being curious and adventurous concerning the world round me. Contemporary meals, multicultural communities, innovation within the restaurant house inform who I’m and what I count on. I went to highschool within the bay space and was uncovered to a number of ahead pondering eating places throughout faculty and after.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the location editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise protecting meals, folks and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent almost twenty years protecting the pizza trade, from impartial pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each dimension enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has gained quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant trade. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and might let you know the place to seek out one of the best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a dwelling.
