Everyone knows that our go-to guy for everything cheap is Clark Howard.

Clark is the cheapest and nicest guy we know, and he thrives on helping you become the ultimate cheapskate. Our twice monthly 'Cheapskate University' segments are very popular.

But how did Clark get his start?  Hear his success story!

Part 1

Part 2

For a long time listeners have been suggesting that we profile Bill for our Success From Scratch segment, but we always thought that would be a little egotistical.

But, who cares?  We decided that while Bill was on vacation, we would feature his own amazing success story and that we would make him interview HIMSELF.

 

The tragic death of Jenni Rivera this week caused many of us unfamiliar with her work to find out about her truly amazing career and success story. 

Known as 'La Diva de la Banda', Jenni broke ground for female artists in the male-dominated genre of banda music.  She was fearless, and her life had its share of heartbreaking drama.

But her rise to success despite an abusive relationship and becoming pregnant as a teen, is absolutely inspiring.

Listen to Bill tell Jenni's story.  Handel 8-830A 12.13.12

According to the national Automatic Merchandising Association, the vending machine industry in the U.S. is a $42 billion a year industry, and it's not just snacks and sodas anymore.

Matt Horan was sick and tired of carrying his girlfriend around 'piggy back style' after a night out on the town in her stilettos.  So he came up with an idea...the Rollasole, which he sold in vending machines in the UK. 

The Rollasole allowed women with aching feed to purchase a ballet type slipper out of a vending machine and slip them on their feet, while giving the customer a little draw string bag to carry their offending shoes.

They were a huge hit, in one year, he sold 60,000 pairs!

Now, you can buy them outside the UK in vending machines in Las Vegas, LA and New York.

You can also get them on their website.  But if your really want a deal, you'll buy them at Target, where you can get them for $10 HALF the price of the ones sold in vending machines.

Here are some other odd vending machines!

Japan though, takes the cake...you've got to check out these vending machines!  Yep, this is a Smart Car vending machine...

Hugo and Debra Saavedra have combined their shared experience in food, herbs, creativity, artistry, and business partnerships to create the most natural and luxurious skin care products possible.

Their passion is to enhance peoples’ lives by creating amazing products made from the best raw materials that the Earth can sustainably give.

They started making handcrafted soaps that they sold at their local local Farmer’s market.  Today, they are a $10 million a year company.  They can even make customized soap, like they did for us! Check it out,  this is a big huge soap that we can cut up into bars!

Check out a tour of their factory.

Click here for Hugo Naturals!

**Special deal for KFI listeners!

When you place ANY order on their site, use the coupon code KFI at checkout and you'll get a FREE handcrafted 4oz Holiday Snowflake Soap**

"Papa John" Schnatter, is owner and CEO of Papa Johns Pizza.  John says his it was his father and maternal grandfather who taught him the value of hard work.

His grandfather owned a successful drapery company, but his father wasn’t so lucky, he founded:

• solar heating
• wine distribution
• a cable TV company

 …..all of which failed. 

John told People Magazine back in 1997:

“My dad had not one business that was successful, but he went to his grave swinging, he never gave up”

And that's where he got his determination to sell people on his passion....pizza.

Listen to Bill tell his story.

Check out his HUGE home!

George Lucas will donate billions from Disney deal: Most generous celebrity?

People are still trying to work out whether Disney's $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm was a good or bad idea for "Star Wars," but thanks to George Lucas it will certainly prove to have been a good thing for the world.

The legendary "Star Wars" creator has apparently decided to donate the vast majority of that money to charity.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lucas plans to put the money into a foundation that focuses on educational issues, a cause close to his heart. A spokesperson said that “George Lucas has expressed his intention, in the event the deal closes, to donate the majority of the proceeds to his philanthropic endeavors. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Lucas himself commented: “For 41 years, the majority of my time and money has been put into the company. As I start a new chapter in my life, it is gratifying that I have the opportunity to devote more time and resources to philanthropy.”

This holds up with Lucas’ generous behavior over the last few years. In 2010 he signed The Giving Pledge, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s effort to get America’s wealthiest to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Around the same time, he declared that he would be “dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education,” which he described as “the key to the survival of the human race.”

“I’ve always tried to be aware of what I say in my films, because all of us who make motion pictures are teachers — teachers with very loud voices.”

Based on the classic story of a young man’s battle with the forces of evil, George Lucas’s 1977 film STAR WARS introduced a modern myth to a new generation. A primal tale set in a distant galaxy, STAR WARS revolutionized special effects, forged new frontiers in sound design, and brought audiences to movie theaters in record numbers. The two sequels to STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and THE RETURN OF THE JEDI, along with Lucas’s adventure trilogy of Indiana Jones movies, are among the most popular films ever made.

Coming of age in Modesto, California in the early 1960s, George Lucas loved to write and considered becoming an English major until a childhood friend suggested he apply to The Cinema School at the University of Southern California. Even in his student days, his experimental films walked away with top honors at student film festivals. In 1973 Lucas had his first feature-length hit with AMERICAN GRAFFITI. AMERICAN GRAFFITI was produced by Francis Ford Coppola, a friend and mentor of Lucas since his days in film school. Sweeping up America in a wave of nostalgia for the summer nights of teenage innocence, AMERICAN GRAFFITI was one of the most profitable movies ever made. Its success gave Lucas both the following and economic resources to begin an even bigger project.

Lucas spent the next four years hard at work on the first in a series of science fiction movies. STAR WARS (1977) was one of the first movies to take advantage of the advances in special-effects technologies. The movie created an entertaining fantasy world where important moral and ethical decisions were constantly intertwined with everyday life. Speaking of STAR WARS, Lucas said, “There was no modern mythology to give kids a sense of values, to give them a strong mythological fantasy life. Westerns were the last of that genre for Americans. Nothing was being done for young people with real psychological underpinnings.” In the writing of anthropologist Joseph Campbell, Lucas had learned about the myths that pervade many disparate cultures, and it is this mythology that gives Lucas’s space age epic its timeless resonance. Both of the sequels and the one prequel continued in the same vein and with equally successful.

In 1981, Lucas’s work took a step in another direction, with the production of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was a 20th-century adventure story about a swashbuckling archeologist, Indiana Jones. Played by Harrison Ford, a long-time Lucas associate, Jones became one of the best loved heroes of the 1980s. For RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Lucas teamed up with another major figure, Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had had great success with JAWS (1977) and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977), and brought his sense of suspense to the collaboration. It proved one of the most successful pairings of in Hollywood history. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was followed by two more exceptional pictures in the series and a popular television show featuring the Indiana Jones character.

In the late 1970s Lucas formed the production company, Lucas Films Ltd. In Northern California, Lucas’s 2,700-acre state-of-the art production center and “think tank,” Skywalker Ranch, is home to the empire. There, Lucas presides over his vast entertainment company, which now includes THX, Skywalker Sound, and Industrial Light and Magic. In many ways, Skywalker Ranch is the beating heart of the entertainment industry. Constantly at work developing new and higher-quality production methods, Lucas Films Ltd. has a significant influence on many of the most successful contemporary films.

Today, with the second STAR WARS trilogy setting box office records, George Lucas remains one of the most popular filmmakers of all time. For the past few decades, he has been at the forefront of American culture and creative technology both predicting and creating our popular aesthetics. He has collaborated with some of the greats of the industry and has been nominated for 44 Academy Awards (winning 16 Oscars). More than anyone working today, George Lucas has expanded the visual and technological possibilities of the popular cinema, and he continues to delight audiences around the world.

There’s big business in scaring the CRAP out of people.

Scary movies are a huge draw.  Proof?

Hollywood has made:

TWELVE “Friday the 13th” movies

TEN different “Halloween” movies

SEVEN Nightmare on Elm Street movies

This past weekend, the movie Paranormal Activity 4 earned $30.2 million at the box office.  If you see the promo for the movie, it shows a crowd lit by night vision watching the movie, and they’re getting the CRAP scared out of them….and they love every minute of it.  Check it out.

 According to the Haunted House Association:

• Halloween is the SECOND largest commercial holiday in the U.S.
• 90% of all households with children will participate in Halloween
• $7 billion is spent each year on candy and costumes
• More then 20 MILLION fright seekers will pay an average of $17 to check out a haunted attraction.  (Theme parks generally charge $50 to $60 per ticket for their haunted park attractions) 
• The industry generates between $800- $1 BILLION in revenue year

All of these haunted attractions are BIG business, turning people into…. Haunt-repreneurs.

Check out Hauntrepreneurs.com

The "99 Cents Only" chain, which sells food and household goods at 300 outlets throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas, has been a rare business success story during the US downturn. 

It is now hoping to open its own flagship branch alongside those of luxury brands like Chanel, Gucci, Versace and Jimmy Choo, where usual customers include celebrities like Mariah Carey, Eva Longoria and Victoria Beckham.

The exclusive three block stretch of boutiques famously featured in the film "Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts' character is snubbed by snobbish sales assistants. "99 Cents Only" is likely to receive a similarly cool reception from the current retailers of Rodeo Drive. 

However, the discount chain says it is able to afford the roughly $500 (£310) per square foot to rent space, and that it will bring customers flocking to the area.

It says it is also seeking to serve a growing number of existing customers who live in the wealthy Beverly Hills area and started shopping at the discount store during the recession. (MORE)