How Success Happens

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices