We Fixed It, You're Welcome

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1. Reheating Pizza Hut: Can We Deliver a Comeback?

   3 november 2026 · 51 min

   Afspelen
   The majority of Pizza Hut was just sold to investors for roughly $1.5 billion. Hot deal, right? Not exactly. The pizza category has cooled off, and one of America's most iconic brands is struggling to keep up. Can its new owners turn things around, or do we need to fix it for them? Lees meer

   Join Chino Nnadi and Aaron Wolpoff with guest Brandon Solano, former VP at Domino's Pizza, CMO of Papa Murphy's and Wendy's, and current CEO of RAVE Restaurant Group, to dig into why Yum! Brands sold Pizza Hut to LongRange Capital.

   Stacking Pizza Hut up against Domino's, Papa John's, Little Caesars and Pizza Inn, the panel tackles third-party delivery, dine-in versus takeout, franchisee challenges and Domino's legendary turnaround, which happened during Brandon's tenure. They also question whether yet another limited-time offer can bring customers back, or whether the real fix starts with the product itself, right down to the freshness of the dough.

   The conversation lands on a turnaround plan: a handful of flagship dine-in restaurants with retro vibes and live stages for local talent, warmer delivery-and-carryout locations, a bigger personality on social media, and a quiet recommitment to fresh ingredients. Did we actually fix Pizza Hut, or is it just another half-baked idea?

   Panelists:

   Chino Nnadi – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chino-talentstrategist/

   Guest

   Brandon Solano – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-solano-48459392/

   Aaron Wolpoff – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingaaron/

   Connect With the Show

   Subscribe for more deep dives where we fix big business problems with fresh perspectives.

   • Website – www.wefixeditpod.com

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   If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your friends! Keep listening to find out how we fix companies and put them back better than…

2. Nepo Babies, Inc.

   27 oktober 2026 · 46 min

   Afspelen
   A famous last name can get you the meeting, the press coverage and the first check. It can't answer your support tickets, fix your fulfillment or make the unit economics work. So when a last opens every door, how can we tell whether the business behind it is actually any good? Lees meer

   Join Chino Nnadi, Aaron Wolpoff and Melissa Eaton to unpack the world of "nepo babies" in business, which we agree is a loaded term. Using Phoebe Gates' AI shopping assistant Phia, Hailey Bieber's Rhode, David Ellison's Skydance, the Kardashian brand empire and Stella McCartney as examples, the panel breaks down what a famous name really buys: the removal of doubt, faster access to investors, and a financial safety net most bootstrapped founders never get. They also look at who's really behind many celebrity "co-founder" brands, and why the Theranos board is a warning about trusting big names over real expertise.

   The conversation lands on a simple test: strip away the story, look at who's actually running the company, and judge it on retention, not reach. A head start isn't the problem. Pretending it doesn't exist is.

   Panelists:

   Chino Nnadi – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chino-talentstrategist/

   Melissa Eaton – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mseaton/

   Aaron Wolpoff – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingaaron/

   Connect With the Show

   Subscribe for more deep dives where we fix big business problems with fresh perspectives.

   • Website – www.wefixeditpod.com
   • Follow us on:
   Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/wefixeditpod
   LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/wefixeditpod
   YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@WeFixedItPod

   If you liked this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your friends! Keep listening to find out how we fix companies and put them back better than we found them.

   Disclaimer
   A quick disclaimer. We are going into this somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice or anything that would get us in trou…

3. Middle Managers Are Back?!

   20 oktober 2026 · 57 min

   Afspelen
   Middle managers were supposed to be one of the layers companies could do without. Organizations flattened their org charts, invested heavily in AI, and removed roles in the name of efficiency. Now the question is whether they also removed the people who help teams think, learn, and work effectively. Lees meer

   Abhijit Bhaduri joins Aaron Wolpoff and Melissa Eaton to unpack the management reset happening in an AI-enabled workplace. Drawing on his experience in talent management and global learning and development, he explains why efficiency and effectiveness are not the same, how repeated restructures erode trust, and why employees need enough security to learn new skills.

   The conversation explores the future of middle management, the entry-level talent pipeline, the human cost of treating employees as interchangeable line items, and why AI needs thoughtful human escalation when systems fail. The answer is not to stop using AI. It is to redesign work so technology and people can make each other more effective.

   In this episode:
   Why companies are reconsidering middle management
   Efficiency versus effectiveness
   How layoffs and reversals damage trust
   Why fear makes learning harder
   The role of managers in coaching, culture, and escalation
   What happens when entry-level jobs disappear
   Why AI needs human judgment and customer-service escalation
   How employers can invest in employees’ next roles

   Connect with Abhijit Bhaduri:
   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijitbhaduri/

   Connect With the Show

   Subscribe for more deep dives where we fix big business problems with fresh perspectives.
   • Website – www.wefixeditpod.com
   • Follow us on:
   Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/wefixeditpod
   LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/wefixeditpod
   YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@WeFixedItPod

   If you liked this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your friends! Keep listening to find out how we fix companies and put them back better than we found them.
   …

4. Advertising Week 2027: Imagining What's Possible

   13 oktober 2026 · 57 min

   Afspelen
   Advertising Week and the future of industry conferences get a full rebuild on We Fixed It You're Welcome, recorded live in New York with Erica Boeke, CEO of XP Land. Lees meer

   Aaron sits down with Erica in NYC while Melissa and Chino join remotely to ask why Advertising Week New York now runs out of an old Herald Square mall, why event sponsorship budgets are shrinking, and why the best conference networking happens at fringe events. Erica, who spent years creating brand experiences for Condé Nast titles, lays out an experiential marketing and event marketing strategy playbook for Advertising Week 2027 built around the attendee experience.

   In this episode:

   - Why Erica last spoke at Advertising Week in a former JC Penney boys department

   - The dirty little secret: why she hasn't bought a badge for SXSW, AWNY or Cannes in years

   - How 86 devices for the 86th Oscars beat a $250,000 logo-on-a-napkin package

   - Why Canva, Sephora and Target no longer need conferences to reach their fans

   - The fixes: make New York the campus, program downtime, design moments of awe

   What you will learn

   Why Advertising Week moved from Broadway theaters to a Herald Square mall, where Erica last spoke inside the old JC Penney boys department

   The dirty little secret of big conferences: why Erica hasn't bought a badge for SXSW, AWNY or Cannes in years, and why that should worry organizers

   How Erica got Samsung to deliver 86 devices for the 86th Oscars green room, and why that story beats a $250,000 logo-on-a-napkin sponsorship

   Why one major insurance tech conference's sponsor list shrank to roughly half of what it was three years ago

   How Canva, Sephora and Target built audiences big enough that conferences now need them more than they need conferences

   Why the best feedback from a Fast Company Innovation Festival survey was about networking on the shuttle buses

   The 2027 fixes: audit the attendee journey, make New York the campus, get out of the mall, program downtime and design moments of awe…

5. Sizing Up Oura

   6 oktober 2026 · 53 min

   Afspelen
   Oura has sold millions of rings, generated significant revenue from both hardware and memberships, and pursued a company valuation of more than $15 billion. Lees meer

   It was supposed to go IPO…and then it didn’t.

   The ring itself? It tracks your sleep, stress, recovery and activity. It’s a major business.

   But the ring may be the least interesting part of this story.

   In this episode of We Fixed It, You’re Welcome, our panelists Aaron, Melissa and Chino break down the business behind Oura, from its hardware-plus-subscription model to its growing customer base, brand awareness, and health-data strategy and challenge each other about whether an IPO was ever the right move to begin with.

   The conversation explores why Oura has succeeded in a crowded wearable market, how it can continue growing, and what happens when a company becomes responsible for an increasingly valuable collection of deeply personal health data.

   The central question is:

   With all eyes on this company, how does Oura move on from here?

   What You Will Learn

   Why Oura is more than a ring

   How Oura's hardware-plus-subscription business works

   Why the subscription model is both an opportunity and a challenge

   How Oura can expand its audience

   Why Oura's screenless experience is an important differentiator

   Why retention does not necessarily mean genuine customer engagement

   How raw health data can be turned into actionable guidance

   Why customers may want different levels of health information

   The discussion around Oura's sleep-data accuracy

   Why customer consent matters when collecting health data

   How AI could increase the value of biometric information

   Why health-data privacy could become increasingly important

   What a customer-controlled data permission center could look like

   Why longitudinal health data could become a valuable asset

   The tension between shareholder expectations and customer privacy

   Whether Oura should monetize its data

   Whether Oura should introduce additional products

   Whether Oura sh…

6. Paper or Plastic?

   29 september 2026 · 44 min

   Afspelen
   It feels like one of those environmental debates we settled a long time ago. Lees meer

   Paper comes from trees, breaks down, and feels natural. Plastic comes from fossil fuels and represents pollution.

   So if we're trying to make the environmentally responsible choice, paper seems like the obvious answer.

   Except the closer you look, the less obvious it gets.

   Depending on the conditions, paper can require more material, water, and energy to produce than plastic. Plastic can perform better in some lifecycle assessments, while also creating challenges around recycling, microplastics, and environmental impact.

   In this episode of We Fixed It, Christine Yeager joins the conversation to unpack the complicated reality behind one of the most familiar sustainability questions.

   Christine spent more than 11 years at Coca-Cola, eventually leading its North American Sustainability Project Management Office. She also worked with Circular Action Alliance to help move Extended Producer Responsibility programs from policy into implementation. Today, she helps producers and service providers navigate EPR.

   The conversation explores packaging choices, lifecycle assessments, recycling infrastructure, consumer behavior, corporate sustainability, and the economics behind Extended Producer Responsibility.

   Because the real question isn't simply paper or plastic?

   It's:

   What happens to that material across its entire lifecycle?

   What You Will Learn

   Why paper isn't automatically more sustainable than plastic

   Why plastic can perform better in some lifecycle assessments

   How lifecycle assessments influence packaging decisions

   Why packaging weight matters

   How energy sources can change the environmental impact of paper

   Why recyclability doesn't guarantee actual recycling

   What Extended Producer Responsibility means

   How EPR changes the economics of packaging

   Why EPR primarily incentivizes recyclability

   Why recycling is heavily influenced by geography

   Why the same packaging can have different…

7. Tackling Sports Streaming: The Hidden Cost of Watching Sports

   22 september 2026 · 1 uur 6 min

   Afspelen
   Watching your favorite team used to be simple. Turn on the television, find the channel, and watch the game. Lees meer

   Today, following one team can mean navigating multiple streaming platforms, subscriptions, blackout restrictions, premium tiers, and constantly changing media-rights deals.

   In this episode of We Fixed It, Renee Washington joins the conversation to unpack the rapidly changing business of sports media and what it means for the people who actually watch the games.

   Renee brings experience from across sports broadcasting, including work with ESPN, FIFA, NBC Sports and other major sports platforms, along with her background as a former professional soccer player and three-time All-American.

   The conversation explores why sports leagues are increasingly prioritizing global audiences, how enormous media-rights deals are reshaping distribution, why local broadcasters and communities still matter, and why athletes themselves are becoming increasingly powerful brands.

   For decades, sports broadcasting was built around a relatively simple relationship between fans, teams and television.

   That relationship has changed dramatically.

   Today, leagues are negotiating enormous media-rights agreements with traditional networks and streaming platforms. A single sport can appear across multiple services, forcing fans to figure out where individual games are being broadcast.

   Renee Washington explains that the driving force behind much of this change is money.

   Sports media rights represent enormous revenue opportunities, while streaming platforms see live sports as a way to attract audiences, collect viewing data, build habits and introduce viewers to their broader entertainment ecosystems.

   But the financial opportunity comes with a cost: complexity.

   Fans can find themselves juggling multiple subscriptions simply to follow one team. Local broadcasts have also become less prominent in some markets, while national and global programming has become increasingly important.

   Wha…

8. Can UPS Still Deliver?

   16 september 2026 · 44 min

   Afspelen
   UPS has spent 119 years building one of the world's most disciplined operating systems. But now the company is changing that machine from the inside: consolidating responsibility, restructuring operations, reducing costs, closing facilities and moving away from Amazon volume that no longer fits the economics of the business. Lees meer

   Noel Massie knows what that machine looks like from the inside. He spent 42 years at UPS, beginning as a college student loading trucks in 1977 and eventually becoming a president of five business units and Vice President of U.S. Delivery Operations. He describes a company where managers were given real ownership, frontline employees were trusted to make decisions, and culture was treated as an operating system rather than a poster on the wall.

   Aaron Wolpoff, Chino Nnadi and Melissa Eaton use Noel's experience to examine a much bigger business question: Can a company become more standardized and efficient without becoming too rigid to respond when reality gets messy?

   The conversation goes deep into UPS's long-running transformation, its volatile relationship with Amazon, the economics of unpredictable volume, the difference between standardizing guardrails and localizing judgment, and why Noel believes the company's biggest competitive advantage is ultimately its culture of ownership.

   About the guest

   Noel Massie is a former UPS executive with more than four decades of experience in operations, logistics and leadership.

   He began working for UPS in 1977 while attending San Jose State University, initially taking a night-loading job to pay for college. He expected to leave UPS after graduation for a position at Hewlett-Packard, but the company convinced him to stay and promoted him into management.

   Over the course of his UPS career, Massie became a manager, mid-level leader, president of multiple business units and ultimately Vice President of U.S. Delivery Operations. In his final role, he supported the company's domestic presidents and pr…

9. Can Companies Predict the Future?

   8 september 2026 · 42 min

   Afspelen
   Can companies predict the future? Allen Nejah, founder and CEO of SunMan Engineering, joins Aaron Wolpoff and Melissa Eaton on We Fixed It, You're Welcome to explain why he built a connected, voice controlled car dashboard in 2005 and then watched the rest of the industry sell it fifteen years later. Lees meer

   This is a conversation about corporate innovation strategy and the distance between a good idea and a good idea at the right time. We get into why only 12% of advanced manufacturing companies ever commercialize an innovation at scale, why 95% of filed patents never earn a dollar, how quarterly earnings pressure quietly shrinks R&D ambition, why a corporate innovation lab has to be funded and measured differently from the rest of the business, and how large companies use patent litigation to push small inventors out of a market.

   In 2005, Allen Nejah built a touchscreen tablet that lived in a car dashboard, connected to the internet, and answered when you spoke to it. He called the voice assistant Genie. The iPhone did not exist yet. Tablets did not exist yet. The carriers he pitched asked him whether he was trying to get people killed. Twenty years later every car on the lot ships a version of what he built, and he is not the one selling it.

   Aaron Wolpoff and Melissa Eaton use his story to work through the question sitting underneath every innovation budget: how do you tell an idea that is wrong from an idea that is only early? The conversation runs from Ernst and Young's finding that just 12% of advanced manufacturing companies ever commercialize at scale, through the legal machinery large companies use to squeeze small patent holders out of a market, and lands on a practical playbook for funding, measuring and killing innovation projects without punishing the people who ran them. It is for founders, R&D leads, product people and anyone who has been asked to justify a project that will not pay off this quarter.

   About the guest

   Allen Nejah is the founder and CEO of…

10. Apple's Core Dilemma: Should a New CEO Preserve or Evolve?

    1 september 2026 · 1 uur 2 min

    Afspelen
    Apple has a new CEO. But should John Ternus try to change Apple — or protect what already works? Lees meer

    Chris Deaver, former Apple and Disney leader and co-founder of BraveCore, joins Aaron Wolpoff and Melissa Eaton to unpack one of the biggest questions facing Apple's next chapter: how do you evolve a company without losing the culture that made it great?

    Chris brings an unusually close perspective to the conversation. He worked in leadership development at Apple and worked extensively with John Ternus over more than a decade as Ternus developed into the leader Apple ultimately chose to succeed Tim Cook.

    The conversation explores why Steve Jobs and Tim Cook were so different, why that difference actually helped Apple, and why John Ternus doesn't need to become either one.

    They discuss Apple's collaborative culture, the shift from "Think Different" to "Different Together," the company's approach to AI and privacy, the future of AR, the challenge of creating Apple's next major product category, and the pressure on a new CEO to deliver a "mic drop" moment.

    Chris also explains why Apple's current transition is less about fixing a broken company and more about preemptively positioning a healthy company for its next phase.

    In this episode:

    Why Steve Jobs chose a fundamentally different successor in Tim Cook

    What Apple actually needs from John Ternus

    Why culture may be Apple's most important product

    The shift from "Think Different" to "Different Together"

    Why Apple promotes people based on principles, not just results

    The danger of a CEO trying to control every function

    Apple's "category one" philosophy

    What Disney's succession problems can teach Apple

    Why Apple's approach to AI is different

    Privacy vs. AI's dependence on massive amounts of data

    Why Apple doesn't need to be first

    The future of AR glasses

    What would make consumers actually want Apple's next wearable

    Why Apple's next major product doesn't have to replace the iPhone

    The pressure on John Ternus…

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