Today we’d like to introduce you to Bernadette Fiaschetti.
Hi Bernadette, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Many people do not know the history of the incredible brand…Wingstop. It all started with Pizza Patron actually. I moved to Dallas in 1986 with my former husband, Antonio Swad, we were both very young and, in our 20’s. We met in upstate New York while both working at two Italian restaurants that were side by side in a small town.
Pizza Patron was born in a saturated, competitive sea of pizza concepts. We began competing with monster brands like Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn, and Little Caesar’s. The concept was to make a delicious pizza with the highest quality ingredients like my Italian father, Albert Fiaschetti, taught me. We made it so good and such a tremendous value that we thought people would get in their cars and drive to pick it up when everyone else was delivering. Many said, no one will pick up their own pizza when everyone was so conditioned to pizza delivery, and that “we would fail for sure.” Getting feedback is a good practice when developing anything new but don’t be fickle if you really believe in your idea. Don’t listen to the naysayers.
At the time a 14-inch Domino’s pizza with cheese and one topping was $9.99 plus tipping the delivery driver. In contrast, our 15-inch cheese and one topping pizza was only $4.99, no tip, 50% cheaper and better-quality ingredients like “Full Red” tomatoes, a premier brand from California which by today’s standards would be organic. Dino Cortopassi, the founder of Stanislaus Food Products, was very serious about the quality of his tomatoes.
Antonio, who was half Italian too, he wanted to open a pizza restaurant and move to Dallas, Texas; and I grew up working in my father’s bodega and pizza and submarine sandwich shop. My parents had recently moved to Houston for my mother’s nursing position at St. Joseph’s hospital in Houston and I wanted to live closer to them in Texas. Antonio and I had only known each other for a few months when we decided we had the motivation, and the tools we needed to begin our first venture together. We started with one pizza shop in one of the most dangerous areas in Dallas.
We did all our finish-out and the design ourselves. Money was tight, and we couldn’t even afford to finish the very top of the front counter before we opened our doors on April 16, 1986. We stood out immediately because our little shop was only 750 square feet. It was a small space measuring just 15 by 50 feet, but it was a beacon of light in a run-down, poorly lit, old strip center.
Everything about our little shop stood out. From the exceptional ingredients, the incredible value, the big, bright, red and white checkerboard sign outside that matched the sharp, red and white checkerboard border on the glossy white walls inside. Our standards were high. We kept the windows shiny and spotless, the three parking spaces clean and tidy, using the mop water each night to rinse them down. The inside was equally spotless and well run, earning us many scores of 100 from the regular health inspections. In fact, we were a featured news story on the local evening news about all the perfect scores we got as the Pizza Patron brand expanded.
We worked hard to build our customer base one day at a time. Our marketing was truly grass-roots, I put door-hangers on every home within a three-mile radius myself, talking to everyone I could spreading the word with genuine enthusiasm. We also went to ball parks and grocery store parking lots and handed out hot samples of pizza with a menu several nights a week. I worked from 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at an insurance company Monday through Friday, and as a cocktail waitress from 10:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. at a famous nightclub on Greenville Avenue, serving Miller Lite to guys like Tony Dorsett.
It was in-between those shifts I slept and did the marketing on foot putting door-hangers on homes for about an hour daily and then I would rush back to help Antonio make and bake the pizzas for the line of tickets from the people that came in immediately to give us a try! It was exciting to watch it grow every day. After two years we were doing well enough for me to quit my other jobs and open a second location. We saved every nickel we could, constantly reinvesting in the business, even washing all our own linen at home, after hours, for all the seven Pizza Patron’s and the first Wingstop the first 15+ years.
We grew Pizza Patron into 7 locations over the next 8 years. We then took the money earned from Pizza Patron and started the first Wingstop in 1994 in Garland, Texas on Northwest Highway. Almost everyone told us that Wingstop was a “bad idea and that it would never work,” they thought we were nuts. Again, so much for the naysayers!
Wow, Wingstop, who would have ever thought it would be what it is today! I have so many great memories of the first few years of development and all the fun we had throwing “wing test” parties with all our employees who were also our best friends. We had to wait to get all the Pizza shops closed first before we could begin. Antonio had the brilliant idea to drop a commercial fryer in our backyard to replicate the recipes exactly as they would be prepared in the first Wingstop.
Those parties would go as late as 4:00 a.m. sometimes. I remember in particular the night we were developing the “Atomic” sauce for the wings. t was my pallet that gave the thumbs up on the Atomic sauce when we finally got it just right. Some people can just take the heat, I was one of those people. It was so funny to watch the big, tough guys come in the first Wingstop to see who could survive the Atomic wing sauce. It became a “thing’ here in Dallas, a competition in those early years. I’m sure it still goes on.
And the fries! Wingstop was famous for their fries. That recipe was finalized during those test parties as well. I remember one woman in particular who was one of our loyal customers and used to joke that we put “crack” on the fries! The wait time for the “made to order” food was the best part of the experience; it created the anticipation just like the famous Heinz ketchup commercial from 1979. The food was hot, it was fresh, and it was an experience!
Speaking of fries, as co-founder and co-developer, I believe Wingstop made a huge faux pas when they recently switched from fresh cut and blanched fries to frozen. It is my understanding that this is a result of customer complaints of long wait times. I speak from experience that the problem is not the process; it is the management. In the long run, the brand will suffer lost sales and enthusiasm for the food, ultimately harming the brand. It is not part of the original concept. Remember, the quality, freshness, and the anticipation matter. That is what the customer came for!
We grew Wingstop to nearly 200 stores in nine years and sold it in 2003. After selling Wingstop, we went on to begin franchising Pizza Patron and grew that to around 100 stores. Antonio and I parted ways in 2009, and remain good friends, talking nearly daily, and we have two amazing daughters, Vincenza and Antonia.
When I became a mother in 1996, is when I really took a deep dive into Alternative Health and Wellness. I started reading everything I could find about delivering and raising a healthy baby. One of the first books I read was “How to Have a Healthy Baby in Spite of Your Doctor” by Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D.; he opened my eyes on so many things regarding health. His book created an insatiable thirst for knowledge regarding health and natural wellness methodologies.
I began questioning everything I knew or was told. I learned that vaccines were not as safe and effective as proclaimed far and wide. I read books like “Vaccination A Crime” dating as far back as 1901. Those books and hundreds more fed my knowledge and obsession with getting the truth out about so many medical practices that were harming people and giving them alternatives.
My mother, Elizabeth Fiaschetti, was a nurse and my grandfather, Frank Hicken, was a medical doctor graduating from Case-Western Medical School in the early 1900’s. Perhaps that is why I was so interested in medicine and health. I was always searching for alternative treatments that countered big pharmaceutical companies. I have good instincts; I learned that from my father who was famous for saying many things, like “What a racket “and “I smell a rat.”
Floatation therapy, also known as sensory deprivation, was one of the alternative treatments I studied. It was remarkable for so many things that plague us in the modern world like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and migraines, for example. And so, here I was again, this time alone, with an idea that I believed the world needed. So, I opened Adrift Float Spa, a sensory deprivation spa in Preston Center in February of 2011.
Adrift quickly got a lot of attention from the press who were very curious about sensory deprivation. I intentionally placed Adrift Float Spa in a high traffic and high-profile location to give it the respect it deserved as a powerful therapy. I also gave it a beautiful finish out that people would remember as a little haven to release their fears right smack in the middle of Dallas, Texas.
How did I end up on the radio of all things? A local radio show asked me to pop on the air and explain how floating, sensory deprivation worked and talk about the benefits. That appearance turned into a regular segment titled “Floating Friday’s,” and after a few weeks of “Floating Friday’s” an iHeartMedia executive came to me and said, “You should have your own radio show, you’re a natural.” My response was “your nuts, I could NEVER do that.” I signed my first brokerage agreement with iHeartMedia just a few weeks later on April 09, 2011. Adrift Float Spa and One Life Radio started within 10 weeks of one another. I honestly think back sometimes and think this…” what the hell was I thinking?”
Adrift was in business for seven years successfully and served many, including many pro-athletes. We did well in sales after about a year, but we really exploded when Steph Curry talked about floatation therapy on ESPN and credited his perfection of the three-point shot to floating and visualization from within the float tank.
The One Life Radio Show was live on the air for 14 years and transitioned fully to a podcast in January of 2025. Which can now be heard on all podcast apps like Spotify, Apple, or on our website oneliferadio.com.
I did a live broadcast daily on the legacy station 1190 AM. After about a year, I began expanding my distribution with the help of my (always encouraging) second husband, Alan North. We expanded into one-third of the country at my peak and began scaling it back about five years later as podcasting became increasingly popular as part of our daily American culture. Then in January of 2025 I made the full transition of turning it into a podcast. I have had the pleasure of interviewing thousands of authors, doctors, experts, and world leaders from around the globe.
I have always loved radio and used to listen to late-night talk radio on my drive home every night from Pizza Patron and Wingstop. Shows like Bruce Williams and Dr. Laura were my favorites. I loved how Bruce always tried his best to leave people in a better place with his great advice and positivity; he was so kind. Bruce always ended the call with “I do wish you well, my friend.” In stark contrast, Dr. Laura was very harsh at times in her delivery, and a bit self-righteous when giving advice, lacking compassion and understanding. But, I did appreciate her direct style of communication.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s all perspective at the end of the day. I love to work hard; it makes me feel alive in the world. At the end of the day, we were lucky. A lot of people work hard. There were several armed robberies in the first couple of years; in fact, there were two actual “shootouts” believe it or not.
Dallas had an incredibly high armed robbery and murder rate in the late 80’s and early 90’s, we even had a friend of ours killed in an armed robbery, just a mile from our first location. The first robbery nearly ended tragically, leaving us on the floor in a corner trembling and thankful to be alive. The second armed robbery was equally as terrifying with me on one knee on the concrete in the parking lot firing off our 357 magnum as Antonio drove back on the parking lot after taking an employee home. The second armed robbery ended up in a high-speed chase down Interstate 175 in Dallas, Texas. I actually shot out the taillight of the get-a-way car, believe it or not. And there were several more robberies over the years.
When I think back…I have tremendous gratitude for making it through those dangerous years; and for our health, that kept us strong physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Conversation and changing our world into a kinder place is my full time work now. Providing information, understanding, and education on how to live your best and healthiest life through my podcast and non-profit work.
I am known for a lot of things, mostly for my love of all animals including us. In January 2026 I started another non-profit that is a billboard initiative with messaging specifically to encourage us to be kind to all living things, “Kind Hearts Media.” We recently did a campaign to encourage people to bring their pets inside and out of the cold all over Texas during the recent ice storm. The billboard said, “If you’re cold, they’re cold.” With images of both cats and dogs.
I started Kind Hearts Media when I saw a void in mainstream media not using their powerful voices to speak out daily to help educate people regarding the pet overpopulation problem, as well as the growing animal cruelty present in America.
What am I most proud of? I am proud of all my accomplishments, but I am most proud of my two daughters and the adults they have become. You asked what I believe sets me apart from most people? I don’t like to think in those terms because we are all talented in some way; but I believe my talent is my work ethic, compassion, and integrity. I had great parents.
I would like to add this; no one does it alone. All the people that were a part of our team over the years are what I am most thankful for. We would have never made it without all of them; their amazing spirits, work ethics and character were all responsible for the success of both concepts. We all had fun and we all had guts!
Conversation is my work now, providing information, understanding, and education on how to live your best and healthiest life through my podcast.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
That people will surprise you both with good and bad behavior. But, no matter what people do, don’t let it rob you of your zest for life and personal growth. Mostly, don’t listen to the naysayers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Oneliferadio.com
- Instagram: @oneliferadio
- Facebook: One Life Radio
- Twitter: @Oneliferadio
Image Credits
Bernadette Fiaschetti, Antonio Swad
