Steven Dorn is a film producer, talent manager/scout and branding expert from NY. He moved from NY at the age of 5 to Lexington, KY where he begin his journey in entrepreneurship. Check out his full interview below.
Where are you from and what was life like growing up? Born in New York, moved to Lexington, KY when I was 5 due to my fatherās job. Grew up in what I would consider a normal middle class family with very frugal parents, my mom would clip coupons, take me shopping at kmart for clothes, and gave me haircuts herself. At age 11 my father gave me a lawnmower and told me that anything non-essential I wanted moving forward Iād have to purchase it myself and I could do so by mowing lawns for money. By junior year of high school I had a full scale lawn and landscape company with several of my friends on payroll. I graduated high school early and went to college for business where one of my professors advised me that he didnāt feel I needed college, I agreed and left after my first semester.
What was your first big project? My first big project was throwing massive teen parties at KBA Sports complex where I would essentially turn the place into a megaclub. I’d hire a DJ, bring in lights, sound, security, etc we’d have over 1,000 people at each of the parties. A few days before the first one we threw the fire marshals came in and said the building wasn’t zoned for the type of event/capacity we were looking to do so I had to add a new sprinkler system to the building to bring it up to code to meet the proper zoning requirements.Ā
How did you link with Nerlens Noel and what did you do as far as services? I was friends with DeAndre Liggin’s, Eloy Vargas, Terrence Jones, and many of the other former UK hoopers so when you’re in those circles it’s a small world so i’d always get connected with the new players coming in. Nerlens had met a friend of mine Laura when he came to Kentucky for his visit and when it came time to return for the season he had asked her if she knew anyone that could help set up a show in Lexington for his friend who was a rapper from Boston and she had referred me as the guy. I was close with and helped mentor Nerlens during his time at Kentucky arranging his own community service activities such as attending special Olympics events, visiting kids at the children’s hospital, etc. Once Nerlens declared for the draft and went on to the NBA I started managing him and split time between KY and Philly.
Explain what all you have to offer and what exactly it is you do? I’m a well rounded and highly intelligent businessman, I get asked everyday what it is that I do however there’s no easy answer to that question as it’s very broad, i’m involved in many different businesses, whatever makes sense.
What got you into music? Throwing parties and shows/concerts got me into music. I booked Tha Joker for one of my parties and became close with him, he brought me onto his team to help out and consult for him and I started traveling and attending meetings, video shoots, shows, etc with him.
How did you meet Bryson Tiller? Stephon Dupree introduced me to bryson, he had been working with him for a few years and knew I had the expertise/connections to take bryson’s career to the next level. Bryson wouldn’t have reached the level of success he has if it wasn’t for Stephon building the foundation with him for years and getting him to a point where I was able to recognize his potential and agreed to work with him. The first time I met Byson I passed on working with him but 8 months later Stephon came back to me again, I felt better about where Bryson was with everything and we got to work.
When did things really start taking off with Bryson? Once I heard “Don’t” I recognized that it had “hit potential” and purchased the exclusive rights to the beat as Bryson had only leased it off sound click. as we pushed record through various marketing avenues such as Vine, Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud reposts, etc the buzz grew and things really started taking off quick.
Touch in on the current lawsuit and what was the reason behind it? When I started working with Bryson he was living out of his car working 12hr shifts putting dough on trays at the Papa Johns distribution center. I invested in Bryson enabling him to leave his job and to focus solely on music as I financially supported him and his family and funded his music career. As we continued to build the buzz around Bryson more people would come around and get in his ear. Bryson had been friends with this barber Rich from Miami for a couple years who had in the past tried unsuccessfully to manage him, as it became apparentĀ that we were on the path to sign Bryson to a major label deal Rich pushed Bryson to get his friend Neil involved as well. Once Neil was in the picture Rich and Neil would be constantly trying to turn Bryson against me by fabricating false stories/narratives so they could take control of the situation. After I secured a 9 figure RCA deal for Bryson and he no longer needed to rely on me for financial support Rich and Neil were able to convince Bryson to work solely with them. After 4 years of litigation Bryson and I recently reached “an amicable resolution” to our legal disputes but I’m still engaged in ongoing litigation with his current manager Neil for interference with a contractual relationship.Ā
We’ve heard you are executive producing for a show called Tiger Kingdom, explain the journey – I’ve been an animal lover my entire life and have been fortunate to build many relationships in the animal world over the past several years. Upon watching Tiger King I was shocked by many of the blatant lies in the show and reached out to some of my friends featured in Tiger King to see why they were portrayed so inaccurately. The directors had originally approached Doc Antle and Myrtle Beach Safari about creating a documentary about tiger conservation but ended up never completing it and just selling the footage to Netflix who took everything and created a storyline with as much drama as they could: “murder, mayhem, and madness”. I produced Tiger Kingdom toĀ address many of the unanswered questions, correct misconceptions, and unveil the true inner workings of a celebrated but debated topic. make sure to check it out at tigerkingdom.tvĀ
What has been some of your biggest struggles in your line of work? Greed is a terrible thing that corrupts people, money changes a lot of people and they’re quick to forget how they got to where they are once successful. It’s also extremely hard to find solid trustworthy, intelligent, and driven people to work with/hire.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to be an entrepreneur? You have to want it, speak things into existence and find solutions not excuses!
Follow Steven Dorn: Facebook, Instagram
Website: https://www.kentuckyceo.com
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