How Success Happens

What happens when elite-athlete recovery meets startup hustle? At Entrepreneur and Athletes First’s Summit in Park City, host Dan Bova sits down with Rob Insinger, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Ammortal, to unpack the company’s futuristic wellness Chamber and the wild experience it delivers. Rob explains how Ammortal combines red/near-infrared light, pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF), molecular hydrogen, vibroacoustic sound, and breathwork into what he calls the “ultimate human recharging station.”

Dan and Rob dive into how the company bootstrapped its growth through grassroots demos, athlete adoption, and word-of-mouth, and how the wellness and longevit...

Dan sits down with Carissa Broadbent, the #1 New York Times and USA
Today bestselling author behind the wildly popular "Crowns of Nyaxia"
series, to talk about her new book, *The Lion and the Deathless Dark*.
Carissa shares how she went from marketing to indie publishing, why
romantasy is having such a huge moment, and the real-world habits that
helped her finally finish books instead of obsessing over chapter one
forever. She gets candid about productivity, burnout, and writing
while eight months pregnant. Expect smart tips and tons of inspo for
creators...

Dan Bova sits down with Shawn O’Brien, Chief Operating Officer of Go Rentals, at The Summit event in Park City, Utah, for a fast-paced masterclass in turning a miserable car rental into a jaw-dropping luxury experience. You’ll hear how Go Rentals guarantees the exact make, model and even license plate of your car, tracks private flights in real time, and greets guests with pre-cooled vehicles, favorite drinks in the cup holder, and five-star-hotel-level hospitality.

Shawn shares his career journey from Bain & Company partner to scaling Go Rentals nationwide, adding locations at a blistering pace while obse...

Dan Bova sits down with wildlife biologist, TV host, and "Shark Week" star Forrest Galante for a wild, squid-slime-soaked conversation about turning extreme animal adventures into a mission-driven media empire. Forrest shares how he went from ant researcher to building Phantasticus Pictures, now one of the largest wildlife production companies in the world. He opens up about his globe-trotting work—from India’s massive Vantara wildlife rescue center to remote corners of Africa and the Sea of Cortez—and how he uses TV, YouTube, books, and, of course, Shark Week to get millions of people to fall in love with con...

Dan chats it up with Ronnen Harary, co-founder of global toy and entertainment company Spin Master and author of the new book, No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make. Harary shares how growing up with dysgraphia and financial instability pushed him toward entrepreneurship and ultimately led to building mega-hits like Air Hogs, Bakugan and Paw Patrol. And he also dives into conquering AI angst, embracing failure as “learning luck,” and trusting your internal compass.  Oh, and also why you should avoid bringing bananas to business meetings.

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Dan sits down with Lo Bosworth, former star of MTV’s "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills," who is now the founder and CEO of Love Wellness, a women’s health brand she launched in 2016 that sells millions of products across major retailers like Target, Walmart, Ulta, CVS and Amazon. Lo shares how a frustrating 18‑month search for answers about her own depression, anxiety, and women’s health issues led her to discover the “care gap” that inspired Love Wellness. Lo also opens up about life as a first-time mom, why she launched her brutally candid podcast “Tell Me I’m a Good Mom” ju...

This live episode of How Success Happens was recorded at The Summit, a three-day event created by Entrepreneur and Athletes First that brought together elite NFL athletes and top minds in business to connect and collaborate. Host Dan Bova sits down with Gregory A. Holifield, PhD, founder and CEO of Red Queen Logic, to talk about his mind-blowing vision for truly personal, private AI that runs on hardware that you own—not in some distant data center. In this high-energy conversation, Gregory explains how Red Queen lets entrepreneurs harness teams of AI agents to curate their news, run a vi...

This special episode of How Success Happens was recorded live at The Summit, a three-day event in Park City, Utah, created by Entrepreneur Media and premier NFL agency Athletes First. In this episode, you’ll hear perspectives on success from elite NFL athletes, including Drew Bledsoe, Kyle Rudolph, and Kyle Van Noy, alongside other top performers from the sports world. They are joined by founders and C-suite leaders from companies such as Red Queen Logic, Go Rentals, Ammortal, Function Health, a16z Cultural Leadership Fund, Yum! Brands, Kickstarter, Ticketmaster, and many more. Find out how they build and sustain hi...

As America marks its 250th birthday, we're revisiting highlights from conversations with America's storyteller, Ken Burns. Ken's legendary documentaries, including "The American Revolution," “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” and “Jazz,” have earned him piles of Emmys and Oscar nominations, and in this episode, we’re sharing powerful insights from an interview Dan did while Ken was promoting “The Vietnam War.” Ken discussed his creative process, the craft of storytelling, and his perspective on entrepreneurship in America. Happy Fourth, everyone!

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Dan sits down with Jim Koch, the legendary founder of Samuel Adams and Boston Beer Company, for a conversation that’s equal parts business masterclass and barroom storytelling. Koch shares how he walked away from a cushy Boston Consulting Group career at 34 to bootstrap a scrappy brewery in a rough Boston neighborhood. They dive into his wild brewing experiments—from 60-proof Utopias to a Bloomingdale’s brown ale made with 40 pounds of beef heart. Koch also explains his Brewing the American Dream program, how he once saved fellow craft brewers during a hop shortage, and why he thinks AI will n...

This week, Dan sits down with "Competitive Success" author Arjan Singh for a fast, fun, snack-size masterclass on how to future‑proof your business with corporate war games. Arjan explains war gaming as a “dress rehearsal” for strategy, where teams role-play competitors, regulators, and customers to stress-test big moves before they go live. You’ll hear how his sessions predicted Apple TV, learn his nine-step Competitive Success framework, and dig into a pharma case where a preplanned FDA “disaster” scenario helped save a future $5 billion product.

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Bobby Moynihan, superstar SNL alum and the voice of Jedi Bob on LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, joins Dan to talk about his newest project. ⁠The Clean Plate Club⁠, a live improv show where in-person ticket holders can get a meal cooked on stage, and everyone else can join online starting August 12th.

Bobby also reads about Dan (the sheep, not the host) from his children’s book “⁠Not all Sheep are Boring⁠.” He reflects on what success really means, the highlights of his career, and how to command any stage, whether it’s a comedy club, a cartoon...

On this snack-sized episode, MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier shares the most surprising lessons he’s learned from sitting down with more than 200 of the world’s top performers — and how you can steal their playbook. (Pay extra attention to his advice on how you should be nice to our AI overlords.)

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Mamadou Ndiaye, the funny animal guy behind Casual Geographic,  has plenty of tips for anyone trying to make better videos, build an audience, or find a justification for their hyperfixation. But the strategy talk isn't the only good stuff in this interview. Ndiaye also counts down the top three times wildlife nearly took him out, which, considering he wrote the book 100 Animals That Can F*cking End You, tracks.

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Did you know Jack Link of the jerky brand is a real guy? He is, and he is just as obsessed with meat as you would hope. In this episode, Dan sits down with Jack’s son Troy Link to talk about all things jerky. Plus, he shares the brand’s secret sauce. And it’s not what you’re expecting!

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Paul Morris has been in the real estate game for 25 years, and in that time he's learned that the best real estate agents aren't the best at the numbers. It’s something else that makes them special.  In this episode of How Success Happens, Paul breaks down his three rules for never losing money on a property. If you've ever dreamed of going into real estate, Paul's here to help.

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From It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, to putting  Wrexham AFC on the map, Rob Mac has a habit of going big. So when Enterprise came to him with a World Cup partnership built around giving away lots of cars, he was in. To enter, fans should post #OnEveryCorner and #Sweepstakes and tag @Enterprise on X or sign up on OnEveryCorner.com from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Dan talked with Rob about the sweepstakes, soccer, and his best advice for entrepreneurs chasing their next big win.

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Ever wonder what your filmmaking heroes were like before they became legends? We’re talking the giants: Lucas. Spielberg. Coppola. Paul Fischer literally wrote the book on it, The Last Kings of Hollywood. In this conversation with Dan, he breaks down how these icons found their voices and the fascinating mix of friendship, rivalry, and creative friction that pushed them all to greatness.

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Like many of us, Adam Lynn spent his college years partying. But unlike the rest of us, he was able to turn those parties into a viable career path. After getting his start in a frat house, Adam would go on to ring the bell at the NASDAQ when his event company Breakaway hit a nine-figure valuation. In this chat with Dan, Adam shares how he turned party planning into a legit business and some of the hard lessons he learned along the way.

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Nate Bargatze is a busy guy. He has a new movie coming out, The Bread Winner, and he's hard at work on Nateland, his very own amusement park. But he took some time out of his packed schedule building roller coasters (don't worry, he's got a few experts helping with that part) to stop by and chat with Dan about some of his most hilarious moments. Like how his now-famous George Washington SNL sketch almost never made it to air.

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While every other startup is busy making AI products that will eventually become sentient and steal our jobs, Madhav Agarwal (CEO) and Tanvi Gadamsetti (COO) went in a completely different direction. They made a better shoelace. Fresh out of Michigan State, these two patent-holding, Shark Tank-winning founders built a materials science company around laces that actually stay tied. In this snack-sized episode, they explain why they started the day they had the idea and why you probably shouldn't wait either.

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John Paul DeJoria co-founded Paul Mitchell hair care and Patrón tequila, but he'll be the first to tell you he started with nothing. Unless you count the dime his mom handed him to drop in a Salvation Army bucket when he was six. That dime taught him everything. After getting fired from three jobs and living out of his car, he finally started making real money at 35 with Paul Mitchell. Then came Patrón. When he sold it, it was the biggest sale in alcohol industry history. But DeJoria never forgot that dime. He's planted over a million tr...

Alex Faherty sat down to chat with Dan about one of their favorite topics; The Knicks! But Alex wasn’t just there to agree that Jalen Brunson is the best. Alex and his twin brother Mike built Faherty Brand from a college essay idea into an 80-store empire. Alex gets real about what it actually feels like to quit your cushy finance job and chase a dream you've been cooking up since you were a teenager. Turns out it's equal parts exhilarating and "what the heck did I just do?"

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Dan went to NFL Draft Week in Pittsburgh. He sat down with 49ers tight end George Kittle and his wife Claire to talk about what it actually takes to keep your head on straight when the lights are blinding. It turns out both Kittles minored in Entrepreneurship in college. That class stuck with them more than anything else, except sports! They know how to soak up the good times, and they know how to flush the bad ones on and off the field. 

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Everyone says if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. But is that actually true? Marcus Buckingham has spent 30 years crunching the numbers on human performance, and he's got a very specific, and maybe surprising, answer to just how much of your day needs to spark joy before you stop wanting to quit.  You can learn more about his research in his new book Design Love In. At the end of the episode Dan has his own surprise brush with love. 

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Wheelwright Lumber started as a small second-hand store in Ogden, Utah back in 1890 and has grown into a 13-acre, full-service lumberyard now led by the family’s fifth generation. In this episode, fifth-generation owner Paul Wheelwright shares how each era has put its stamp on the business, from evolving with the construction industry to modernizing operations while preserving the company’s identity. He discusses how to keep values and vision aligned across 130 years, what ongoing succession looks like as the company prepares for its sixth generation and why the right financial partners are critical when a legacy business decides to e...

When founder and CEO Arturo “Archie” Montemayor III decided it was time to think about the future of his Austin-based CPA firm, he didn’t look outside for buyers—he looked across the hall. In this episode, Archie shares how he structured a thoughtful transition by transferring ownership shares to longtime employees while staying active in the business, preserving client trust and the firm’s hard-earned reputation. He breaks down how he identified leadership potential, mentored new owners and built a collaborative ownership group that keeps the firm’s values front and center. Along the way, he reveals what every small...

When Dan last spoke to author Soman Chainani, the guy was riding high. His wildly popular "School for Good and Evil" series had just been turned into a movie, and he was perfectly happy to keep churning out fairy tales. But somewhere between then and now, the fairy tales stopped flowing. So instead of playing it safe, Soman wrote Young World,  a far more controversial book that he simply couldn't not write. Soman tells Dan exactly why he felt compelled to go there, and drops some spicy literary takes along the way.

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In 1975, George P. Barnes Jr. opened Detroit’s first Black‑owned full‑service optical dispensary — and turned it into a multi‑entity enterprise that now manages vision benefits through a national network of more than 32,000 eye care providers. Joined with the next generation of leaders at Heritage Vision Plans, George shares how he used integrity, community purpose and strategic thinking to grow from a single optical center into both a retail operation and a benefits management company. The family unpacks why they split the business into two entities, how they’re navigating leadership transitions between generations and what intentional, mission‑driv...

V&C Foods began in 1945 with Victor and Charlotte Cortesi delivering ranch fresh eggs to San Francisco bakeries during World War II. Today, it’s a multigenerational, family run distributor supplying top Bay Area restaurants with dairy and specialty products. Steven Herrera started as a 25-year-old route driver, rose through operations and ultimately took over ownership, expanding the company into a full-service dairy supplier. Now, Steven and his son Adam are engineering a phased transition of leadership, sharing how family succession works in real life, what it takes to keep a tight knit culture through ownership changes and how pl...

Dan loves brown liquor. Jake Ireland loves brown liquor. This was always going to be a good conversation. Jake is the founder of Off Hours Bourbon, a brand so young it still gets carded. He joins Dan to talk about how he’s made being the new kid on the block work for his brand, and what he tells anyone crazy enough to want to turn a dream into an actual business.

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Haley Sacks, aka Mrs. Dow Jones, just dropped her first personal finance book and celebrated by buying a gold watch. Which, honestly, tracks. Her whole deal is that you shouldn't deprive yourself. Forget the strict budget. Haley's method is about finding ways to make more money, not suffering through life one skipped latte at a time. Pre-order her new book Future Rich Person.

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Free Comic Book Day is May 2nd (mark your calendars, people). To celebrate, Dan sat down with Sean Mackiewicz, Senior VP and Publisher of Skybound Entertainment, to talk about why giving away your best stuff for free is actually a genius long game, and how Sean is out here beating doctors and lawyers at career day.

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Bobby Berk dropped out of high school at 15, got fired from Bed Bath & Beyond for faxing his resume on the company fax machine, and somehow built two successful companies before becoming an Emmy-winner with Queer Eye. He stops by to talk about toxic workplaces, building something from nothing, and why kindness is a legitimate business strategy. Also, he picks Dan a paint color. Dan is going with it. Dan will blame Bobby if it looks terrible.

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PR is one of those things everyone knows they need and almost no one knows how to get right. Dan sits down with Zach Rosenfield, CEO and President of RMG, the media strategy firm responsible for introducing Dan to guests like Daymond John and Shaquille O'Neal,  to talk about how Zach built his business and, more importantly, how you can find the right PR team before you waste a dime on the wrong one.

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Bryan Reisberg started carrying his corgi Max around in a backpack, because of course he did. The internet, predictably, lost its mind. Brand deals followed. Then a backpack line. Now supplements. In this episode, he talks about how he launched her career and stays relevant in a competitive space.

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In 2008, Michael Kurtz joined forces with the band Metallica to try to bring back vinyl. Now, Record Store Day is a massive celebration that includes some of the biggest names in pop music. And the vinyl industry has become a billion-dollar industry for the first time ever, selling more records than when analog was the only choice. Michael Kurtz shares how the heck that happened.

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Dan Gregor and Doug Mand are part of the writing teams behind The Naked Gun, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and How I Met Your Mother. These guys know how to make people laugh. But being funny is only half the battle. Over the years, they've also figured out how to walk into a room, read it, and actually get a project sold. In this episode, they share their strategies for selling a pitch and what happens when it all goes wrong.

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Eva Longoria does so much it makes you want to lie down. Soccer. Tequila. She has a whole business empire that she apparently built while also running a foundation mentoring Latinas in entrepreneurship. Oh, and there's that little acting and directing career, too. She sits down with Dan to talk entrepreneurship, why she teamed up with Lenovo on their Backing Every Business program, and delivers a pep talk that frankly none of us deserve but all of us need.

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Berner built one of the most recognized cannabis brands on the planet while battling litigation and a colon cancer diagnosis at 38. He sits down with Dan to talk about community building and the lessons behind his new book, Becoming Legend.

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