Locked In with Ian Bick - The Cartel Murdered My Parents In Front Of Me | Big Steve

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Stephen Prohaska shares the tragic story of the death of his parents in front of his own eye, becoming an orphan and finding success with the odds stacked against him. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Connect with Big Steve & join the waitlist for his book: https://www.bigstevebigmoves.com Listen to his podcast: https://www.parental-vision.com Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:16 - From Orphan to Entrepreneur 00:08:18 - Starting in the Nightclub Industry 00:11:56 - Making Money in the Nightclub Business 00:16:01 - A Smooth Transition from Employee to Owner 00:19:54 - Childhood in Cali, Colombia 00:23:44 - Surviving 00:27:40 - Finding Happiness and Overcoming Resentment 00:31:50 - The Beginning of an Entrepreneurial Spirit 00:36:01 - Chasing Dreams and Changing Lives 00:39:57 - Navigating the Entertainment Business 00:43:30 - Transition and Learning 00:47:08 - Making Changes for Growth 00:54:46 - The Importance of Relationships and Believing in Yourself 00:58:53 - Pushing For Success Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know, I'm in the kitchen, sitting on this side of the table. My family's around. And then out the corner of my eye, I see two trucks pull up, two pickup trucks. I don't know what kind. Like Toyota pickup trucks, the old school pickup trucks. Guys jump out. Pump, pump, pump, pump, pump. I have Connecticut's own Stephen Prahaska, also known as Big Steve,

to share not only his story of how his parents were tragically murdered in front of him by members of the cartel, but how Steve's story crossed over to mine when I was a, teenager in the nightclub business. I have to give a big thanks to all those who leave a comment on our YouTube podcast episodes or a review on our episodes on Spotify and Apple. It really, truly does help us tremendously get the show out there to more people. Remember, you could stay up to date on all the exciting things we have coming to the locked in podcast by following me on my Instagram at Ian underscore Bick. I see all the messages you guys send me daily and I try to read and respond to as many as I can. Now sit back, relax, and get ready to lock in with Big Steve. Big Steve. I'm here. I'm here.

Welcome to Lockton, man. This is a long time coming. We rekindled our friendship a few months ago. And I'm excited to have you because not only do you have an incredible personal story and your newfound success in this new empire building on your own. But our paths crossed 10 years ago, a little over 2010, Yeah, something like that, right? Yeah, that's like 12, 13 years. Yeah, 13 years, give a take. You were the former owner, one of the former owners of Tuxedo Junction, the nightclub. So the audience is going to love to get into that later on in the episode.

They always love when I bring on people that are close to me, like my dad. We're going to have Al on one time, my attorney that represented me. So they like that perspective. Of course. But you live locally. You're in Connecticut. You're an author. You just publish a new book.

Shout that out. for everyone? From orphan to millionaire by myself, you can pre-order your copy at bigstive, big moves.com. I go into depth of how I became an orphan when I was an orphan, when I became adopted,

and what I learned from my adopted parents and becoming the young man that I am right now. So yeah, pre-order your copy at bigsteev, big moves. com from orphan to millionaire. And you look pretty cute in the cover, too. Yeah, this picture right here is actually my immunization paperwork. Wow.

So it actually has actual meaning. And then obviously on the bottom, that's the plane. Well, not the plane, but it's a plane when basically symbolizing, leaving Cali, Columbia, coming to the States and then going after, you know, you dream, the American dream. But it started just being adopted. There was many nights that I cried in the orphanage, asked for God for help. I wanted a family.

I lost my family in a horrific gun violence through the drug cartel, which we can get into. Yeah, so then I was happy that I was going to go somewhere wherever it was. It was in Cali, Columbia. And I took that on the chin, you know. And people admire that. That's a great story of hope, resilience. and comeback, which is what this platform's all about. And, you know, you shine a different light on this,

a different perspective on this episode because normally we have people that either worked for law enforcement or committed a crime themselves or battled addiction. Yes. You were the victim of a crime. Oh, I was, my family was. I mean, I was blessed to be alive and, you know, but I got remorse.

It's survivors' remorse from being able to survive. the shooting that, you know, I lost my birth parents too. But it was very tragic. But after you can only cry so long and be upset for so long. But it's an ongoing process. Not only did, like I said, I cried many nights. I went to therapy when I got adopted to deal with the PTSD. I still deal with it to this day.

But it's a lifelong process that I have to go through. Now I'm just learning how to deal with it. And then I use that. That's the chip on my shoulder. There's a reason why I'm here. And that's one of the reasons why after you read the book that you'll understand why I work so hard. And all the projects I do, including the nightclub business, the truck and business that I had, all the business ventures that I went into, online business. I had the box truck.

Now I'm doing the podcast. Shout out to my podcast, Parental Vision. I got a couple TV shows in the works and then obviously I just dropped this book and cross your fingers I'm going to be trying to do a movie soon too That's exciting And a TV show too, right?

You're working on? Yeah, so I filmed the pilot Single Fathers Hired some Hollywood producers, Hollywood director got all that together, filmed it, got the pitch deck, got everything together

and now I'm pitching it to certain networks and I've been speaking to a couple networks the last couple weeks, and we'll see what happens. I got a couple that are still knocking, but nothing's done until everything's signed in pen. It's exciting, but very stressful. And then once I do that, then I got other things that are in the vault that I put away.

So those will all come out after I start signing serious deals. You know, it's interesting when you meet someone, you never know where they came from or what your past was. And when I met you, and even up until very recently, I didn't know who you were, who big Steve, Steve Rojaska was before he became a nightclub owner, before he became this entrepreneur. Yeah. You know, so take us from the top.

Where are you from? Where did you grow up? Where were you born? What was like childhood like for you? All right. Well, I was born in Cali, Columbia. Like I said, I lost my parents. I became an orphan around age of five, five or six.

when I lost my real parents, I went to a church where a nun took me in. It's kind of hard. So a nun took me in, cleaned me up, and then that was the beginning life of me being an orphan. And then I was in an orphanage in Medellin. And then it was probably a half a year to a year after that my mother and father came down from America and adopted me. and I was adopted by Ellen and Charles Phrasca, two doctors, moved to America, lived in Trumbull, Connecticut for a couple years. As I was getting acclimated to everything, I was rebelling because, remember, I was a young boy,

lost my real family, now I'm into a new family. So what happened was my parents went back to Columbia. We adopted my brother, came back, who's, he's not my biological brother, but he's from the same orphanage, but from a different part of California. Columbia. He was born in Bogota. So we adopted him, came back. Then we moved from Trumbull to Southington. And then that's basically where I grew up my whole life in Southington, Connecticut, graduated high school, played sports, football, did some lacrosse, did soccer as a little kid. I was a boy scout. Typical young boy life. But the education was very strict in my family.

My mother and father were very straight-a-ro-genero. They were both doctors. My mother had three Ph.D. degrees. My father had one Ph.D. degree. So it wasn't until graduated high school in 2000, went to college, four-year degree, bachelor's, and business management and minors in human performance and business marketing. When I graduated college, I moved to Danbury, started working at Sherwin-Williams in Brookfield. I think it's still there, but yeah, I'm Federal Road, the paint store. Then I started bouncing at the nightclubs in Danbury.

And how I got into that was I beat up a kid. And then that's when Mike Rovielo, rest in peace, brought me on as one of the security guards for the nightclub. And that's basically where my night started as far as the nightclub industry, part-time, working a full-time job, you know, in the corporate world. And the corporate world wasn't for me. I went from, you know, the paint store to selling furniture. I opened up my own landscaping business. Did a lot of things.

Did a lot of things. But really when I met Mike Rovielo and Al-Kakamo, that was when I knew I had to do something with those men. Like I said, I met them when I was bouncing at the club. And they was like, oh, four. 405 when Tuxedo Junction, Danbury, Connecticut was, the parties were crazy. They shut down Ives Street. People was like Mardi Gras every weekend. It was great.

And I really learned a lot from Mike and Al. And then Mike actually fired me. So Mike fired me because I was, you know, fooling around at the bar. I was supposed to be checking the bracelets for everybody. Looking at the girls, not, you know what I mean? And so he fired me and I told him, I said, I'm going to come back and I'm going to take your money. And eight years went by and then I offered him to buy 50% of the nightclub. Wow.

Yeah. I didn't know you got fired. Yeah, Mike fired me because I was joking around with his daughter, Noel. I don't know if you know. He has a daughter, Noel. And then she has kids. She was younger at the time. And I don't know if they did that to test me because she's the owner's daughter.

She should be drinking. should she not be drinking? So I'm in the middle like, I want you to have fun, but I got to do my job, blah, blah, blah. But it went to me flirting with, you know, other chicks and fooling around and doing stupid shit, to be honest with you. I didn't realize Noel worked there at one point did, or was she just hanging out?

She did sometimes. She would hang out sometimes, but she would work the courtroom sometimes. But she did sometimes for certain events. Like the rock shows, she would do certain things. But like I said, I was learning the ropes, how to deal with, you know, these two young owners, learning the business more than just being a security guard and then dealing with their family members. Mike Rovail had a daughter.

Al had a daughter who was younger at that time and just learning how to navigate that. And then I made it very clear to both of them that I was a different security guard. I wasn't your average guy. And they didn't like that at first. I was always asking questions. Well, what are you doing this? Why are you doing that? What are we doing this?

Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? And to be honest, in the nightclub business, you don't want to talk about a lot of things. You just, you have the people that work for you and the people that are close, they know certain things, but not everything. And I was that one guy. What are you doing here? Stop shutting the door on me. I would get out of the office.

I'm like, Steve, get out of here. Here's your money. Get out of here. Oh, why, why? Come on, come on, come on. You're hungry to learn. I was. I was very hungry.

And that can be intimidating to some people in any type of business because they don't know what your angle is. Yeah, I mean, like I said, they just probably saw me as a young punk kid that just started, you know, bouncing. Mike only hired me for one night a week. Then I did well. Then it was two nights a week. Then I did well. Then it was three nights a week. And then it became four nights a week.

And it was a time that I started making more money doing the bouncing than I was doing my full-time job. So then that's when I was just like, wow, you can make a lot of money. I mean, I was watching them do the team parties. I saw them do the rock shows. I saw. all the nights, all the concerts and things like that. I'm like, wow, these guys are making a lot of money. And tell people what Tuxedo Junction was.

So Tuxedo Junction was a nightclub in Danbury, which was an entertainment venue. So it was a big venue that we could have small concerts, or under 1,500 people, give or take. But they had a whole bunch of different acts. We did rap shows. We did rock shows. There was comedy nights. The Brazilian parties.

I even, when I was the owner, I even tried bringing Ringland Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus in for a small circus act because it's entertainment. If you really understand entertainment, you're entertaining guests, whichever it may be, whether it's just a party, beer pong, phone party, team party. It doesn't really, you're entertaining people. So it can vary. So I learned a lot. And then I put my own sauce on it when I became an owner. And it wasn't just a basic nightclub. This thing was historic.

It competed with Toad's Place on a lot of levels. Yeah, yeah. It was really huge. When I got involved, I signed paperwork with 2006, 2006 or seven. I believe it was six. I signed legal paperwork to be part owner. It was a scousal property management. And Danbury I did all the paperwork with.

But at first, originally, Al and Mike wanted to sell the whole nightclub. Now, this was like I said, This was in 06. They were huge from 2000 plus on. So what was happening during that time was as they were getting a little bit older. The young kids were coming in. Promoters were starting to pop up throughout the New England and Tri-State area. So they needed new blood.

Now, originally, they wanted to sell the whole business. I found it on bizquest.com. I researched it. I met with the broker. And then after I was, how do I, they checked my funds. Vetted. Yeah, they pre-screened me. After I was vetted, I met with the broker at the nightclub, and I remember telling my mom, I was like, I used to be a bouncing here, mom, this mother effort, he fired me.

This is going to be great. And then I met Mike, not Mike, I'm sorry, Al, for just an introduction. We were in streets at the time before it was actually built in streets, and we spoke for a little bit, and he told me what he really wanted to do. and I had a different option. He wanted him and I wanted completely out, and I said, I'm not going to do that, but were you interested in doing a 50-50 partnership, we'll do that,

and then after four to five years, let's sit down and then I can pay you a note for the other 50% of the nightclub. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month.

Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. So I would get into the nightclub business, make a couple dollars, learn from the best,

and then once I get to the nightclub where I feel it's situated enough, then I would be paying them on the other 50%. And at first they turned me down. And then I got a phone call. I want to say a few months later, about two to three months later, I'll call me and they said, what do you have in mind?

And then that's when I wrote up the deal. And I think the market crash kind of propelled that too, right? They couldn't find a buyer at that point. Yeah, because see, it was a lot of money. I mean, they were trying to sell it. Like I said, not the average person has a quarter of a million plus dollars to put up just for,

a business. So like I said, I offered a different deal. It was on the market for a little bit. I wanted to do it not only because I had new blood, I had the finances, but I had the drive. What Mike and I were worried about was if we were going to mesh. As you learned from your experience in the nightclub, you can only work with certain people that actually want to work and, you know, make money. There's personalities, personal problems that get into play, into How do I say this? Get into play of what happens. So it was a test course.

But we came to a good agreement. We did have stipulations. They had stipulations on me. I'll have 51%. I own 49%. And then we had a hierarchy of things, God forbid, if him and I didn't agree on something,

it would be a verbal warning, and then it would be a written warning. And then the third thing would be, listen, you go home with pay. And that would go both ways to our, myself. And then obviously out of Al still had Mike as his business partner. I didn't have a business partner at that time. I basically went to my family. I would ask my mother stuff, my father's stuff, but I was involved with a lot of the nightclub owners in New Jersey and a few in

New York. So I would pick the people's brains on what to do, how should I do, what to learn. Because remember, I'm a young kid, nightclub. I'm thinking I know everything. But it was a smooth transition. I don't know if you remember, but shout out to Lance Glassy. And then Danny Boy, when I came on, it was just more like a soft opening. I didn't make an announcement. Hello, I'm the owner. I was just hanging around for the first year, just drinking at the bar, just drinking, relaxing.

So then the people would get comfortable with me. And then it wasn't until I started renovating the old. So when I got Tuxedo Junction, I split it into two different nightclubs. because I wanted two different opportunities to make money. So the front end of the room was called, I believe it was called I-Con or something like that. So I renovated that. Like I said, shout out to Danny Boy.

He was the one running lead point for all the demolition and the construction. And then I renovated the middle room, which we called Streets, which was connected to the back room where all the big performances were. So during that time where Icon was being renovated, we would have small parties and streets.

And then when streets was being renovated, I had the small room being booked, so there was always money coming in. So that's when Al and I were talking back and forth as far as ideas, how are we setting it up, why are we calling the streets? What are we going to call it after? Icon, Danny and Lance, we gave them the opportunity to call it Club Lush. They were some of the biggest promoters at that time. And then once I got into the game series, I brought on a promoter,

Jaffe, Prince Jaffee, who started doing the Saturday nights at the club. So that was the new blood that Al and Mike wanted. And then I started doing my own big shows. I started being a rappers. It was a Cassidy, Red Cafe, Lloyd Banks. So I brought in the blood that they wanted. And then what happened was is that you start learning how to navigate through the politics. You know, Dan Berry.

I personally didn't like the city how certain things were being done in the city. And this is on the back end. I paid a lot of money for the city. I did a lot of donations that many don't know, but some of the politicians they know. I don't know if you remember, the mayor hired a specific task force to clean up after Tuxedo Junction in Marked Cruises.

The unit. Yeah, yeah, you remember that, right? Yeah, they busted by chops so many times. Fines, they'd stick me with fines, everything. They were terrible. They didn't want business to succeed down there. But see, that's because the mayor didn't personally like the nightclub industry. You know, but I learned that over time.

So I learned to work with that. I mean, you're finding me over cups that are on the side of my deck. I had guys sweeping that. Not only did we do that, we powerwashed the sidewalks, we cleaned up. So after years of going through that, I got fed up with some of that stuff, you know. But it was a great time. I met you then. young boy coming into the teen world as far as the parties.

Now, before we get to that part, and I'm excited to dump into it, where you grew up in your child and in Colombia, was that a dangerous area? Cali Columbia at that time was one of the number one murder capital rates in the world during the 80s and 90s. That was during the toughest time for the drug cartel, Pablo Escobar, and then the black widow, the female big-time drug dealer. But yes. Oh, the one they made the TV series. Grisela de Blanca. That just came out, right? Yeah, that was during that error.

Yeah, people had mixed reviews on that. Did you see that? I've seen some of it, but that's Hollywood. Like, I mean, when you see in my book from Orphan a Millionaire, you'll actually see some of the people. pictures that are actually from Cali, Colomian, Medellin. It's not as glamorous as everyone thinks. Right now, how it is, people vacation there.

Listen, I don't vacation there because my memories are not happy from that area. But yes, during that time, it was the number one capital area at that time. Like I said, between 82, 86, give it take. Was it safe for children? No. Basically, the children, they were very poor. not very much fueled. A lot of famine.

Dogs run in the streets. Kids, you know, and not even sandals, sometimes barefoot. And as far as clothes, we just had like a sheet over us. But I'm only speaking from the orphanage. Like I went from after being in a family to being in an orphanage. But at that time, a lot of kids, they didn't go to school. They were doing illegal things just to pay for food. If you steal an apple or you steal fruit.

I mean, it's famine down there, you know. My family was involved with the drugs doing what's called mule. They were mules. My uncle was a mule for the cartel. So he would move cocaine from location to location for the cartel. Did he have a choice in that? Like I've heard or seen some situations where they kind of don't have a choice. See, the thing is, is I don't know all the details on that.

What I do know and what I remember is he used to fight with my father because my father wanted not. They didn't want it to do anything with the cartel. And I think you're right on that because at that time, when you start something with them, that's it. You're in. Whatever it is. They don't just say, okay, listen, you don't got to work here anymore. It doesn't work that way. No, no.

So I think he didn't have a choice. I mean, I can tell you the details on that, but I do remember when my father, my uncle used to fight all the time about that as a kid. Sometimes when we experience, like a very severe traumatic experience, we kind of forget about all the happy times before that. Do you have any recollection of your childhood before your parents passed? I remember, to be honest with you, my mother used to cook a lot of rice in the kitchen. It used to be nice. I mean, sorry, just a little emotional. Like, I really don't talk about a lot.

It's tough. I don't have a lot of happy memories, to be honest, on that. I remember sitting around at a table, and like I said, my mother used to have a thing on her head for the Spanish woman to keep their hair. covered and then she would make us, you know, rice and some beans. But it was very little. You know, sometimes you only maybe once or twice a day. It's not every day like here you have breakfast, lunch and dinner. But yeah, that's the only memories I have is just a couple memories, just having food with

my brothers and my sisters and my mother cooking. Other than that, it was my father fighting with my uncle. And how did that carry over to them ending up getting killed? Well, what happened was from what I can remember is my uncle and my father got into a fight. I mean, I was a young boy at the time. It was five. They were going back and forth. My mother had our suitcases.

There was clothes. I didn't know what was going on. Like I said, I was a little kid. But I was assuming that, listen, we're leaving. We're going somewhere. And then the next day after, when we were having food in the morning, two car, two pickup trucks pulled up and just started letting off rounds and then everyone in the kitchen got killed except for me.

Oh, shit. Yeah, so it's almost like the day before you're going, you think you're going to go someplace. You don't know what's going on. There was a fight the day before. You know, I'm in the kitchen sitting on this side of the table. My family's around. And then out the corner of my eye,

I see two trucks pull up, two pickup trucks. I don't know what kind. Like Toyota pickup trucks, the old school pickup trucks. Guys jump out. Pump, pump, pump, pump, bum. Just letting off rounds. Little Steve, fight or flight, you know, I'm crying. My mom, I see blood.

She's crying. What do you even do in that situation? I mean, to be honest with you, there's glass everywhere. Family members are lying. There's blood everywhere. And then I'm lying on top. The only thing I can remember was my mother whispered a couple things. And I ran out the back door.

and it's like I said, I went to the church next door. Lady cleaned me up and then I ended up passing out maybe because of the adrenaline. And then two days later, I was in the orphanage, you know? How old were you when you first started to have thoughts about, you know, how did I survive? Why did I survive? That really didn't hit me, to be honest with you, until I got adopted. I came to America when I was, I felt in a safe space. Every day when I was living in Columbia, it was, he's stealing my pillow.

I might not get food. I don't have sneakers on it. Because remember, when I was in the orphanage, it was a fight every day. You know, the nun would ring a bell thing, thing, and you have to run to the line to get food. If you didn't make it in time, you're not getting food, you know. And then how the bedding, the sleeping arrangements were, there was a couple rooms. and I remember there was four bunks. So in a room like this, there'll be four bunks right here, four bunks over here, four

months on there. And you have to keep your sheets and your pillows because kids would steal your stuff. And I remember a kid killing a kid over a pillowcase. He strangled a kid in a pillowcase. And you just turn around sort of as a little kid. It's like another day. What happened to Johnny? You don't say.

I don't know. And it's just, you end up shutting it out out of your head. head just because of the trauma. Like I tell you, it didn't hit me until I was really in America when I was with two parents in a home. I didn't have to worry about someone kicking in the door. Am I getting food today? You know?

And one of the things that I went through that was the survivor's guilt when I was a young kid when I got adopted. I slept with my shoes on when my mother adopted me. And it took her. She didn't force me to take off my sneakers because she knew I went through some serious stuff. So I slept with my same sneakers on for about a week. And you'll see that in the book as well.

And then that's why you'll notice right now that I can afford sneakers. I buy a lot of sneakers. That's because when I was a kid, I never had sneakers. So I became a sneaker head. That's one of the reasons why. And then obviously when I realized I don't have to worry about people stealing my sneakers or my clothes or my pillow, I started to be comfortable a little bit. It's okay to sleep.

And then, like I said, when I went through a lot as a young boy to transition for that. Steve, this is your room right here. I'm looking around. Really? This is my room? And it was just, it was happiness to me. It was happiness. I asked God for family.

First, I asked God to stay alive. I stayed alive. I asked God for a family. I had a family. And then just dealing with the changes, you know, as far as the list. living situation and just being so blessed at a young age and just trying to take the full advantage. But don't get me wrong, I went through a lot of rebelling because I didn't know how to deal with, you know, the emotions, you know, why do I got to listen to you? What are you going to do

to me? My parents already got killed. What are you going to do? Put me in jail? That's a cakewalk. You know what I mean? As a little kid, I hated God. And that's one of the reasons why I think they adopted my brothers for me to, you know, bond. And we did do that. It's like I said, see pictures of that. My brother and I bonding that we didn't have anyone. We slept in the same bed next to each other. Oh, it was. Did you ever find out why you were the one that got picked out of that orphanage to come to America?

The man upstairs. I do remember when I was in the orphanage sitting playing in the sand and then seeing two parents talk, two, a man and a woman talk to the nuns. The first time I just, I, eh, whatever. Playing in the sand in the land. little kid. And then the second time, the nuns, you know, waved me in. Bobby, come here, come here. And then I went into a room. They cleaned me up. And I'm thinking, they're giving me nice clothes. They're feeding me. What's going on here? They set me up. But it was to prepare me to look nice for them, almost, almost like presenting me sort of everything. I didn't know what was going on.

And then a day later, paperwork was signed. For me, it seems. It seems. real quickly, but it was a long process for them. As I got older, I realized that process of adoption, thank you to my mother and my father, Ellen and Charles. That was about a year to two years, that process for them, for them to be vetted, to be able to adopt me, background checks, job checks, where they lived, everything. Like I said, I didn't realize how in-depth it really is to adopt a young child until I was already 18, 20, 21 years old.

Do you have resentment towards your uncle for what happened? A little. A little, but at the same time, I don't, because I don't know all the story, the reasons why or what he did, why he did it. It's hard to be honest with you. I just try to be a better, the best father I can for my kids and make sure that. they never feel that pain or they never need for anything that I ever needed for, you know, and then to do more what my parents did for me, you know.

So I guess I was raised with the chip on my shoulder. After I got over, how do I say, like being rebellious as a young boy, that's when I really started. And it was one around 14, 15, really honing and on my business. my skills, my knowledge, and picking my mom's brain, picking my dad's brain. This is what I want to do. That's when it started adding up. Started investing in stocks. I was 13.

My mother pushed me into business because when I got adopted, I hustled kids when I was playing football in Southington. We'd have to sell these candy bars. You know, the candy bars to raise money for the uniforms. I knock on the doors. Listen, you like to buy a candy bar for a dollar? I used to sell them for $3. Pocket the rest.

I got a little six, seven-year-old kid coming home. You look at my, I got 400 bucks. Yeah, look at this. And my mom, she'd take my money away from me. I'm like, you're the thief. She goes, you can't do that, Steve. I go, why? They gave me the money.

It's my money. I earned it. And that was the beginning of the entrepreneurial spirit. But I got that, like I said, in the orphanage, I had to scrape up certain things, do certain things to get money or to try to just to get the food. And so I started flipping the Snickers bars. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that, but she pushed me in the right direction because she knew when my mind was at. And that was the beginning of working and then, all right, you want to make more money?

All right, you make $100. You save $50. $25 goes to investment. And then $25 you can keep for yourself. And it was that mentality over and over and over and over. every year after year after year and it just doubled to triple to quadrupled. And that's how I did very well in certain investments. Some of the companies I invested in when I was very young,

which you probably know right now there are billions of dollars right now. Microsoft, I was one of the guys that invested into the iPhone didn't come out yet, but I invested into Microsoft and Apple before they came out with the iPhone. So my family and I did very well with that investment. I also invested in Under Armour As a young boy When I started working out with the guys at the gym I've seen these guys wear all this

Workout gear I'm like, what is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? I ended up looking it up Boom, boom boom Saved up money Your mom here Give me $1,000 with the shares

Of this new little company right Why do you want Under Armour Steve? Mom The kids everywhere are wearing it That's something that's going to be huge now look what was Steph Curry What are these basketball players They got what are their deals with under armor?

Millions They're very well in that How do you balance The two concepts that You know you lost your on one end You lost your family Your parents which is probably One of the worst things that could ever happen

To a child at that age But then on the other end You did lose your parents But you got adopted by A family that gave you this new life that now your kids and their kids are going to be set for. How do you weigh the two? How does that make you feel and how do you balance that?

Oh, man, that's a good question. I consider myself the glue in that situation. How I balance it is I do my best to honor my real parents and the parents that adopt. to me at whatever it is I do. I make sure I have integrity and do good business. That's really a tough question. I mean, I use the knowledge from what my parents taught me and then everything that I learned when I was growing up and I sort of mesh it.

And that's pretty much it. And then I just try to do good business. And then as far as my kids moving forward, I'm trying to try to try. triple what I already had. So that's my way of saying thank you to my parents for adopting me. You know, I mean, I was retired many, many years ago. People don't realize after I got out of the nightclub life, I got into, I didn't work for a little bit.

I was retired. I started working again. I worked at a car part store. I worked at Renaissance. And while doing other jobs. So I was doubling up on jobs when I was retired. And that was my way, like, I'm going to re-up in my life because that was my dream. That was one of my dreams was to own a nightclub.

So when I was doubling up, I was working towards my next dream. What is my next dream? But that's, I guess, my way of giving back to my family. The regular person would have just retired. I'll be honest with you, I got one of my best friends. He says, Steve, I don't know why you put the stress on yourself. Why are you investing all this money to do all? all this stuff, this and that, whatever.

You can just go home, chill, you don't have to do anything for the rest of your life. And I go, I would be normal. How can I do that if God gave me a chance? So that's why I do projects like, you know, my new podcast, parental vision for the parents, the TV show, single fathers, my book is to change lives in different ways. And hopefully that I can inspire a young boy or young boy or young girl. girl who feels like they have no chance at life to be the best that they can be at whatever it is.

And I push my kids in that way. My oldest son, he's going to be doing an internship for me at my podcast. But just to be the best, I guess, that whatever it is that you want to do and go chase your dreams for anybody else. I mean, that's why I work so hard. But it's hard for me to really balance it, to be honest with you. I do struggle with that. When I was running the nightclub, I did drink a lot.

I don't drink that much anymore. I try to stay healthy. I try to live a healthy life. But I talk to, not talk to myself, but I do a lot more reminiscing and a lot of planning in my head. But it's really about my kids, to be honest with you, and then setting things up for my unborn grandkids. So then they'll have more options and choices. and then just changing lives along the way. I got a couple best friends around me that,

God forbid, anything ever happened, they'll be taken care of. I mean, I don't tell them, they know, they know, they know. And that's it, whatever project I want to do, whatever my kids want to indulge in. And to be honest, now trying to put my loved ones, best friends into positions to take care of their families on their own instead of me just saying, okay, here. I want them to build up a business or learn about something to invest in instead of me saying, okay, here, here's X amount of dollars.

After that money's gone, it's gone. So they're learning. I don't expect them to, you know, get it just like I did. It took many years for me to understand that. So, but it's working, though. A lot of the kids around me that are around me, they're better individual. They're doing better financial. They're doing better financially.

They're being better fathers, better mothers. And that's pretty much it on that, you know. You know, it kind of goes to the question I asked you. It kind of goes to like that quote where they say, you know, you always remember the past and you use it as a fuel and you use it. You know, you never forget it. Yeah. You always remember even no matter how dark it is. Yeah.

Just, you know, and breakups and failures in life. That's a tool. You use that and you use that to move forward. And I think that's such a big part of what keeps me going, too. Yeah. Because, I mean, you've seen firsthand. You've seen me at the top. You've seen me at the bottom.

You've seen me, you know, absolutely dragged through the bottom. And now I'm coming back. And I think I just, like, I have all this energy and excitement and, you know, passion and drive. And I think that's because of all those bad times. And I think had I not experienced those bad times, I wouldn't be the person I am now. Correct. Because, I mean, you could tell the audience. when you met me the first time.

When I met you, like I said, you were young. I think you were like 13 or 14, something like that, really. I'm 14, 15. I knew you were different, though. I knew you were different because you did what you said you were going to do. And I don't remember the exact moment, but I remember the moment when I seen you, and I told Al, I said, this boy is going to be a star.

And then that's when you came to the club a few times, a couple small teen events, and then you had your own little group, and then you wanted to do a party. The party did amazing. But you were young. You were learning. The business, wow, entertainment business, the people are liking me. You're making friends.

Are they my friends? Wow, I'm making this money. So not only are you navigating the business, navigating yourself from being a young boy into a man. So it was frustrating a little bit for me, from, you know, being, you know, the nightclub owner. seeing that happen, but at the same time, I also had to understand that you had to go through those things to understand certain things. That was the hardest thing for me, and I used to always talk to Al, why does he not just listen to me?

What the F? Just do this, Ian, just stick with these team parties, and you'll be rich forever, blah, blah, blah. And he always had it Steve. He's got to make his own mistake. And I'm thinking, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. I made those mistakes as a kid. Are you kidding me? He's got us.

This and that, whatever. But at the same time, I was so excited for you. You were doing the parties left and right. You had the marketing on lock, to be honest, with all the kids in the schools. I was excited that you were doing the team parties once a month. And then I remember speaking to your dad one time many, many years ago, saying, you know, listen, you got to watch out for this boy. This is the kid that's going to be coming up.

And I'm sure your father, he just blew me up. He's my son. You know, he's regular, regular, whatever, you know. And then I don't think it wasn't until you came home with a lot of money that, listen, he's a little bit different than the rest of the kids. I remember that. I remember two specific moments. One was that very first night where, you know, Al gave me the club on, it was a random night streets.

And you were like, ow, why are we wasting our time with this? And then I remember you called him that night. And you were like, because you were like, Ian, I got him on. I'm calling him right now because he was away. You're like, Al. there's a line around the quarter. He packed the room. Yes, yes.

I told, yes, I remember that. The look on your face is almost like, F you, Steve, I proved you wrong. But see, that was one of the characteristics that I seen in you. And I knew if it was fueled correctly, you'll be a star. So that's why when I look at the things you're doing now, I expect this from you.

And it's going to go times 10 when you put the energy behind it. You got the right back and you have the right team. You have the right people around you. it's inevitable. The winners are going to win. But when you were young at that time, you were learning, you know, you were learning yourself, learning the business, and you were proving yourself as well.

You probably saw me as a little punk young owner. F him, I'm going to show him. That's exactly how I thought. You know, I get it, man. I get it, you know. But life really, I mean, that goes, there's two things here. One, never burn your bridges because look at we're sitting here doing business.

Years later, I help you with your podcast. And that's years later. had we burn that bridge, we wouldn't be where we're at now. So that's one valuable takeaway. And number two, I am a lot more patient and humble than I used to be. I was always, and something you said earlier stuck out about how you don't announce your moves, or back then you didn't announce your moves. I was always announcing everything.

But you were young, you were learning. But now I'm just very like, you see me like, I don't dress designer or anything. Like I'm here. Like I'm working. I'm putting in the grind. I do everything. hands on. And that's what it takes.

And I feel like I lost that at one point because I started out like that. I lost that and that's how I got into trouble. And that's when I went down the wrong path. And now I got that back. Well, I think it was a combination of things because I remember you had a team. Maybe one team member wanted to go this way. Another team member wanted to go this way. And then you were getting direction from different, you know, whether it was attorneys

or advice from other people. You had a lot going on. You were very young. I don't have any ill will. Was I frustrated on some of the decisions you made? Of course. You know, there was a time that I remember that you had a whole bunch of problems and I wanted to sit down with you and I wanted to, you know, take care of everything

and then you just deal with me. Now, I remember there was a time we were trying to do that. We don't have to get into all the details. We can get into some. But you were in some financial trouble and I wanted to help out. But you had to go down the path that you wanted to. You know, and I think at that time it was because you had a lot coming at you. You didn't know which decision would be the best.

And I'm not mad at you for that because you had to learn certain things, you know. But that's why I've always, I didn't say anything with the media, this and that, whatever. I'm not that kind of a person. I learned a lot from out. Like, I keep my mouth shut. I do my business. I move forward. When you got involved with the nightclub stuff,

I backed off slowly and then I was there to help guide you. Obviously, I was a phone call or text away. I mean, I and I were talking every day. You know what I mean? This was past the team parties. This was when you were doing, you know, the raves and the parties going crazy. But you had to make those decisions. But I was blessed to be able to see the transition from, you know, you being a young boy doing stupid stuff, going to a young man,

learning certain things, understanding that the rap shows. and the concerts are a little bit different than the team parties, and then running the team and then running the business. A lot of promoters, a lot of people out there don't understand a lot of the politics and a lot of things behind the scenes. They'll talk about it. But I know that these promoters go from one thing to another thing to another thing. They're never in one spot.

And I think you learn that over time that certain situations can hurt you if you don't do certain things correctly because remember, you're at one location. At Hyundai of Glendale, lease a new, 2026 Hyundai Tucson S.C front wheel drive for 269 a month plus tax for 36 months, with owner's assurance in America's best warranty, 10-year, 100,000 miles. Stubbed by Hyundai of Glendale today or Hyundai ofglendale.net. 36-month lease, 4,49 to its signing. Tax title license and dock fees extra, plus government fees and taxes. 7,500 miles per year, expires 6126.

Who available at this payment? PH 71529, pH 714659. versus if you go one area and something bad happens, it's okay. We'll find another venue and then go another venue or another venue. You can't do that when you have your own spot. You can't run anywhere. And to me, it's still mind-blowing that I, it seems like a lifetime ago that I actually owned a club. Like, I'm only 28 and I've lived like multiple different lives and, you know,

and then ended up in prison and now I'm here and like, I guess you could call this act three, you know, of my life. And it just, it's wild to think about. I remember, like I said, when I left the nightclub and let it to be in your hands and then Al was guiding you, I remember going to Lush where you changed it. Skybar. Oh, Skybar. Oh, whatever it was. It looked really nice. You renovated it nice.

You had a little crew. I remember where the basement was. You created your own office. You had, I think there was a sleeping quarters too that you arranged upstairs. Yes. I mean, I didn't go looking into everything, but I peeped me. my head in every now and then, but you were learning. You were learning how to do things. All I could say is I hope that you learn some things from myself and Al. Obviously, I was older

than both of us, been in the game a lot longer. But you had to make the mistakes you made. But I was excited to be around some of those young, exciting moments because you did some things that many kids will never be able to do as a young kid. I appreciate that, Steve. And, you know, I think you like kind of being around me again. And I like being around you because it's like a blast from the past. And I remember when our friend Lance connected us again, you're like, is he the same as he was? That's exactly what I asked.

I go, he was a young punk, Lance. If he talks like this, I'm not going to be able to talk to him. F him, blah, blah, blah. And then you will calm. You are collective. And I was like, yo, Lance, this might be it. This might be it. And because to be honest, to you, at that time, I was up to hear.

with my podcast. I was, I hired a team. I wasn't doing the numbers that I wanted to do. I was dumping a lot of money into it. This next month, it'll be almost a year that I had the podcast, but I reinvented it when, you know, you and I started working together. So before I met you, I dumped in around $100,000. Just payroll. That's not even including, you know, their equipment. and people don't understand that repetitiveness of negative, negative, every month, every month, every month, every month. You have to be mentally tough. And I was at a moment, I told Lance, you know, listen, I'm done.

I'm done with this business. I'm going to get into something else. No, Steve, Steve, call Ian, talk to him. Forget that guy. Call him. All right, all right, right. The next day I called you all this. And then you told me to come down.

We had the conversation. And then the final. following day, I made changes on my team. Unfortunately, I made changes. And a lot of people don't like me, but the changes were for the better. The numbers are growing. Any team members, welcome to come back. But obviously, there's going to be a different situation.

I just wanted to win. And I want to win more than whatever else is going on. So if I have to hire someone or I have to fire someone or have to make an adjustment, I'm willing to do that to win. and I think I was at a stage in my life that I let certain people not dictate but run certain things past the point that I knew that maybe there should be some changes made and I didn't make them and that's my fault being a boss. When you need to make a change, you have to make that change like that. If you don't, you're going to lose tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars. No one's going to feel that more than the investor and or the owner.

obviously me being the owner and the investor, it was me feeling it. And then my best friends, they see it personally when I go home, stressed out, this and that, whatever. But like I said, Lance told me to call you. I called you.

We had a great conversation. I was really impressed in the growth that I seen from you. I heard about the podcast that you have, but I never really indulged in it, to be honest with you. But after I had the conversation with you that day, I did take a look. I was like,

oh shit, this young boy's onto something. And it's exactly what I used to do in the nightclub business, but it's digital. Yeah. Like to me, you book a guest. You see what it goes into organizing the guests. That's no different than organizing an artist. And now you're seeing the hospitality of it. Like, we got a whole green room out here.

That's no different than us at Tuxedos 13 years ago. Tuxedos, man, doing stuff like that. It was so much chaos. Now it's more professional, more clean cut. But then again, got to go through that to understand this. Unfortunately, some people have to go on the really deep end, you know, as yourself, but you're learning. And as long as you're moving in the right direction for being positive and then trying to get to where you want to be

and then help out the people around you, I'll support anyone in that, wherever they're from. And some people don't make it. I mean, we reminisce about how many people we've lost that were in our lives during the nightclub business along the journey. I would say more than half of the people that were around us are no longer here. More than half, to be honest, with you, a couple of our workers that work for me, they passed, whether it was overdose or got killed, you know, rest and peace to them. And all the men and women that are doing well or not doing well, the majority are not doing well. And that's just unfortunately that that's facts You doing well

But I sort of knew you would after you got back up on your feet Lance that I know Shout out to Jaffi wherever he's at I heard that he's doing very well There's certain individuals that I just knew that this man's going to do good This person's going to do good Maybe not right now

Something's going to happen with that individual And don't kick a person when he's down No no no I mean that's a tough one. I remember when you were going through a lot of things and a lot of people were, you know, what they were saying, what they were doing. But like I said, you learned that.

But see, I think that when you went through that stuff, you sort of understood Al and myself a little bit differently. Then you started thinking, now I see why Steve doesn't bug out for this or Al does this or, you know, he does this or whatnot. Not everyone understands that. Being the boss means you're responsible for everything, even if it's not your fault.

And then you have to keep your composure no matter what it is. You know? But I think you dealt that to the best of your ability. And to the people that did kick you when you were down, I mean, there's no fun in that. Like, I never understood that. But that's for them. That's between them and the guy upstairs. And then however you deal with, you know, your adversity, how you overcome it,

I believe that's what character is. You know, Steve, I really appreciate the kind words. And it's weird, but it's also good to see you in this setting. Because I've never seen you like this in my life in this setting. It's different. I said it on my dad's episode. Like, people don't get the chance to sit down like this with their parents, with their friends, with their coworkers, and have a conversation about emotions, a one-on-one.

Yeah. It's tough. People don't, I mean, I was fortunate enough to have one-on-ones without. You know, it was more one-on-ones after my father died. I came to me in the, you know, my family. My mother was helping my little son. He's my oldest son. But at that time, he was my only son while I was running the nightclub life, going back and forth.

I was taking care of all my properties, my family's properties, my individual businesses with the nightclub. People don't realize that. My youngest son mother knew that when I started dating her after we had our little son. She would be upset. Like, I got to go cut my mother's grass over here. I got to go to my vacation house over here. I got to go over here for this. Oh, by the way, I got to run the nightclub on Sunday because Al has to take care of this.

Like, that was a regular thing for me. You know, if you were next to me and you saw that running around, you were like, oh, my God, this is a lot. You know, I tried to juggle it to the best of my ability and then just absorb everything and then plan for the future. And that was one of the hardest things for me is while the chaos was happening is still be able to plan for the future. You know what I mean? When I saw you doing some of the big shows, I was like, damn, what if I could do something with this young man for something else? Because as you learn, even if you fail at one business, it doesn't matter. If you have the relationship, you could do something else.

Get back up. Keep trying. That's it. I mean, look at Lance and I. Years, we made a lot of money together. He's not helping me with the podcast as well. We're going to be doing other business ventures. We're going to be doing the TV ventures and all together.

So it's the relationships. I always kept the relationships. I never, you know, shit it on anybody. I tried to always do good business. Did people shit on me? I mean, I really didn't care, to be honest with you. Because I know the winners would understand. And they do.

That's why the winners are winning, you know? What do you think are your biggest life lessons you want people to take away from your story? The biggest life lessons. Well, first and foremost, you got to thank the man up above. Don't ever count yourself out. Don't ever count yourself out. Believe in yourself no matter what. Believe in yourself, no matter what.

And then work like a mother effort and that anything's possible. Do you think it's important for your kids to know your past and where you came from? Well, that's a tough one too. Because I compare it to a lot of individuals come on to our show and they share tragic stories of their past and everything. And you have a traumatic and tragic story too. My kids don't know my, they know that I was an orphan, but they don't know how I became an orphan. They don't know my finances per se, but they know that. we're well off.

I don't really talk to him about that because there's, how I copplementalize it is that there's no gain from that conversation. So if they ask me, I tell them about, you know, that I was adopted, where I was from, I don't get into details how I became an orphan.

I don't get into details about our finances, but I do say we're a little, we're better, not better, but we're well off, that they don't have to worry about finances. that certain kids have to worry about. But I'm very strict as far as the grades like my mother is.

But I'm also very lenient, too. Because both of my kids, they got A's and B's. My oldest son, his lowest grade is a C. I can't really bust his chops over a C. I mean, these kids are blowing me out of the water when I was a kid when I was their age. You know, my little son, that was around the time that I was doing bad things to my mother and father,

stealing cars. She wanted to give me up for adoption. My little son is 12. I was stealing cars. She didn't know what to do on me. Remember, I went through certain things after being adopted. That was one of them. I was steal cars to just joyride, a little kid. I didn't... Trumbull in Southington. You know, thank God I never got arrested, you know. No one pressed charges on a little kid, you know. But I had to go through those things. But I'm blessed that my kids don't have to do that. They don't feel like they have to do that. And I make sure that I do my best to understand what they're going through, whatever it is, whether it's something at school or the house that they want a video game or what's their

aspirations or what's on their mind because I want to fuel that. You know, I was very fortunate with the mother and father that adopted me. They always supported whatever I wanted in my life. And whether it was, you can do it, Steve. you, I'm going to gym, will be the best guy at the gym, or you want to sell candy bars, or sell the most candy bars, or you want to ride dirt bikes, or be the best dirt bike racer, or whatever it was, it was the support on everything that I give to my kids, and I learn that from my family, and I'm very blessed for that.

And to be honest with you, I do that with my best friends and my loved ones. I'll push them because I know if you want something in your life, you're going to have to work hard. You're not going to like it, but you're going to love it at the end. And I'll be honest with you. That's how I feel about my mother. I mean, I miss my mother so much. She was advice for everything. I wish she was here.

Some of the biggest contracts I'm going to be signing in my life with tens of millions. I can't ask anybody. Who's going to give me honest advice and not want a paycheck for the advice is the hardest thing for me? So by me talk on my kids, I will always give advice and answer their questions and try to stare them in the best direction for them. And then I do the same thing with my friends that are close to me as well. And they get mad at me for that. Like, I get it because they're not used to that pressure every single day. You know, you know, listen, you got to be up 8 o'clock.

Well, Steve, what do we got to do? I don't care. Get up. Let's go. We got to do something for today, for tomorrow. What we got to do is Saturday. I don't care. And I had that for year after year after year after year.

I bet you to know when I had the nightclub, I had a job when I had the nightclub too. I worked at Scott's Law Service and I was managing my brother's gym. Wow, I had the nightclub. So I was always doubling up and that was the pressure for my family. You know, but my member, my mother was a doctor, and my father was a doctor, and you got me. I basically passed high school, cheated my way through.

college, you know, but I'm the guy that's going to find a way. I don't know how. I'm going to find a way. I love that. Steve, thank you so much for coming on the show today, man. It was an amazing episode. I really enjoy this conversation. And we'll have your bio and description to buy the book, or the link to buy the book and the description of the episode. And again, thank you, man. I appreciate you. This was good. This was good. Long time coming. Yeah, long time. You were the one. You were the one. that hit me up last week, you said, let me come on the show. I was thinking, I was like, because your audience is a little bit different than the

stuff that I'm doing, but I'm thinking, I wasn't even thinking about the audience, to be honest with you, I was thinking about, Dag, he was a young buck, I was the club owner, we could talk about this, and then I was like, you, of course, I hit up Lance. Your Lance, what do you think? He was like, yeah, hit him up. I'm like, eh. The next day, that's when I hit you up. You know what?

Let me text him. Well, I think to me it was the selling point was you're willing to talk about what happened to your family. And I think you tie that into our show and how you were able to overcome that. You know, I think I think that's really powerful right there. Yeah, I mean, it's not an overnight thing, to be honest with you. I have to live through it the rest of my life. I'm just getting better at dealing with it. But what anyone comes out of this interview in my book and everything I do is that, you know, believe in yourself, work hard.

You know, praise God. And then believe in yourself. And that's pretty much it. I mean, I've always bedded on myself on anything. And I do that with my kids and the closest ones around me. So everyone out there, leaving yourself, work hard, man upstairs.