Dan Bova sits down with AriZona Iced Tea co-founder Don Vultaggio, the Brooklyn billionaire who survived 100 robberies, laughed off a Coca-Cola buyout threat, and has never once sent an email. Find out how that iconic can has stayed at 99 cents for decades, where the capital Z really came from, and why one glance at a table of half-full bottles told Don that Zima was doomed.

Timestamps:

0:00 Arizona Iced Tea founder turns down Coca-Cola buyout

0:30 Don Vultaggio interview: Arizona Beverages co-founder

1:38 Brooklyn entrepreneur story: from brewery job to beverage business

2:19 Beer distributor robbed 100 times at gunpoint

4:46 Business mentors: lessons from his father and a grocery store owner

6:25 Know your costs: pricing advice for entrepreneurs and small business owners

8:05 How successful founders handle bad business decisions

9:19 Billionaire still welding steel for new Arizona factory in Anaheim

10:09 Running a family business with his sons (and never sending an email)

11:55 Customer loyalty secrets and an Arnold Palmer Arizona story

13:53 Why Arizona Iced Tea still costs 99 cents: pricing strategy explained

14:12 Arizona Iced Tea x Hot Wheels collab

15:32 Competing with Coke and Pepsi without Super Bowl ads

16:16 Sicilian stubbornness in business

17:03 Company culture: treating employees like family

18:31 Arizona logo history: why there’s a capital Z in AriZona

20:08 Ranking ’90s brands: Amazon, Pokémon cards, Blockbuster, Bath & Body Works

22:09 Why Zima failed: the half-full bottle test

23:13 Passing on Corona beer: his biggest missed opportunity

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Nate Bargatze has never cursed on stage, never gone political, and never changed his last name (even when someone told him he should). While his comedy friends were chasing edgy crowds and late-night buzz, Nate just kept doing his thing. Twenty years and every bad room in America later, he's selling out arenas. On this episode of How Success Happens, Nate breaks down what it actually takes to build something that lasts.

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Want to make a name for yourself in hair care? Step one, obviously, is to study electrical engineering, fail your second year, and start busking on the streets of London. At least that’s how it worked for Akash Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Fable & Mane, who turned his grandmother’s Sunday-night hair-oiling rituals (and the bedtime stories that came with them) into a brand that landed a day-one Sephora exclusive before he and his sister had even made a sample. Akash tells Dan Bova about cold-messaging a Sephora buyer on LinkedIn, why he puts his eight-year-old self in charge of his “virtual boardroom,” and how the Fable Fund has already put nearly a million dollars toward wildlife conservation.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro 01:53 – What Ayurveda actually means 04:53 – Turning a “stinky” childhood ritual into beautiful packaging 05:54 – From electrical engineering to beauty 09:30 – Chasing happiness: Estée Lauder and Dior 10:38 – Grandma’s stories and the name Fable & Mane 12:47 – Cold-messaging Sephora on LinkedIn 16:30 – The “test people three times” rule 17:46 – Launching the Fable Fund 21:21 – Putting your inner child on the boardroom 23:17 – How the fund works and the Fable 100 list 26:24 – Speed round 29:41 – Wrap-up

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Forrest Galante has eaten rat, hippo, and squid so old it should've filed a complaint. None of it gave him any trouble. Crocodile-infested water did. On this episode, the wildlife filmmaker takes Dan Bova through what it actually takes to get a film crew to the middle of nowhere, trailers, canoes, borrowed boats, and an itinerary that's fiction by hour two. Despite the chaos and the long days, Forrest explains why his core crew has stuck with him since he was 27.

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Kevin McCarthy is the CEO of Unreal Candy, which makes him the most popular house on the block every Halloween (and, according to his neighbors, the other 364 days too). Kevin joined Unreal fresh out of college, when the company had just three employees and had relaunched in a humble 38 stores. Today it’s the largest better-for-you chocolate brand in America, sold in 35,000 stores.Dan, meanwhile, eats roughly 20 pieces of candy in the name of journalism.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro 0:42 Meet Unreal Candy CEO Kevin McCarthy 1:39 What’s “unreal” about Unreal Candy 3:02 The origin story: confiscated Halloween candy 4:37 Scaling too fast: from 34,000 stores to 38 5:43 Joining at 22 with no food background 6:57 Why shoppers started reading the label 8:05 Why taste comes first 9:33 The unlimited chocolate perk 11:42 Inside a chocolate debate: the peanut butter drops 12:56 What landing Costco means for a brand 13:51 Advice for entrepreneurs cooking in their kitchens 14:54 Packaging that makes your mouth water 16:41 Why chocolate makes people so happy 17:39 Keeping millions of bars consistent 19:13 Pulling an all-nighter to fix a production line 20:54 How to stay level-headed as a leader 22:04 Is Halloween the candy Super Bowl? 23:21 Halloween at the candy CEO’s house 24:09 Spotting Unreal in the wild 24:54 Blind rankings: the most divisive candy 27:10 Wrap-up

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Guy Fieri crashes Bert Kreischer's interview and immediately starts asking the questions that would get any normal person fired. But that’s okay, anything for the fans! Turns out even a man like Bert who fills arenas still says the wrong thing, and occasionally embarrasses himself in front of his heroes. In fact, he'll tell you that sometimes the wildest, most awkward celebrity encounter makes for the best story you'll ever tell.

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Our  Dan Bova spent last summer at Mattel’s design lab, and all he got was a gorgeous art book he wrote: Hot Wheels: The Creative Drive. (And maybe a few cars in his pockets.) Ted Wu, Mattel’s vehicles boss, joins Dan to explain why Hot Wheels all face right, which toy is worth a million bucks, and how he got his own Porsche made into a Hot Wheels. Buy Dan’s book. Buy two, actually. Ted’s orders

Chapters

0:00 Ted admits to an abuse of power

0:44 Dan’s Hot Wheels book and his trip to Mattel HQ

2:36 Ted’s 23 years at Mattel

4:20 The most passionate fans in toys

5:49 The custom Camaro at the heart of Dan’s book

7:12 Why do all Hot Wheels face right?

8:49 The Donut Drifter and designer Easter eggs

10:15 The designer who put his real phone number on a toy

11:47 Design vs. marketing

15:30 What makes a Lamborghini a Hot Wheels Lamborghini

17:45 Why track sets aren’t supposed to work perfectly

20:49 Selling to kids and adult collectors

23:03 Ted’s favorite Hot Wheels (spoiler: it’s his own car)

24:29 The employee-only car Dan would like mailed to him

26:37 Thomas the Tank Engine and the million-dollar Pink Beach Bomb

30:13 How to keep up with Hot Wheels

32:47 One last book plug and why you should always buy two

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Tom Hardin didn’t wake up planning to commit a crime. In this story, the ex–insider trader and future FBI informant walks through the day he was handed insider information, expected to make money fast, and trapped inside what investigators call the ‘fraud triangle.’ He reveals how pressure, opportunity, and rationalization all collided—and why it felt normal in the moment. This is the part of white-collar crime most people never see.

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Bruce Campbell’s advice for aspiring indie filmmakers is refreshingly simple. Writing is the cheap part, so quit complaining and get to it. Tired of watching the same five guys land the roles he wanted, the Evil Dead legend wrote one for himself. The result is Ernie & Emma, a sweet, funny film with zero chainsaws that might just make you cry five times. 

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

1:38 Ernie & Emma is the real Bruce Campbell

2:51 What it’s like when your wife is your boss

3:16 What going fully independent unlocks

5:36 Why Campbell wouldn’t star in this as a studio movie

7:42 How fans typecast him more than Hollywood does

8:41 Writing is the cheapest part of filmmaking

10:27 Self-funding and avoiding the low-budget look

11:21 How a camera deal with Sony came together

12:33 Skipping the gray-and-green Fincher look

14:04 Taking the film on tour with Alamo Drafthouse

16:01 Why he’s skipping traditional distribution

17:36 The fan who cried five times

19:31 Are movies worse today?

21:05 Weaning himself off studio habits

22:11 How to protect your original vision

23:55 Advice for aspiring filmmakers

26:21 Bruce rates other jobs

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How did Lucy Guo become the world's youngest self-made female billionaire? The tech founder breaks down her 5:45 AM routine, double Barry's workouts, and the investor pitch strategy that raised a massive Series A.

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Max Amini is a very funny guy. He's sold out Madison Square Garden and is one of the most-viewed comedians on social media. But when he started out in stand-up, no agent or manager wanted to sign him, so he built his own touring machine from scratch. In this episode, he tells Dan how he thinks about comedy, and how he built the team that takes him around the world and sells out theaters.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:03 Max's childhood and his dad's funny bone

2:45 Choosing UCLA over auditioning in New York

4:19 His first time doing stand-up

6:05 Why comedy is never about the money

7:26 Finding his comedic voice

8:59 Authenticity vs. relatability

12:14 Chasing a record at the Dolby Theatre

13:46 Max's pre-show routine

16:54 The Michael Jordan flu game mindset

17:50 Building Abstraction Media from scratch

22:11 Why you should hire someone better than you

25:38 Risk, fear, and the no-Novocaine root canal

28:16 Where to follow Max

29:30 Blind ranking jobs

34:05 Wrap-up

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