Today, I sit down with Steve Gatena, Co-Founder & CEO of PRAY, for a conversation about faith, leadership, and building a company with long-term purpose. Steve shares his journey from growing up in Los Angeles and playing college football at USC to founding Pray.com and thinking deeply about stewardship, culture, and responsibility. We talk about what it means to lead in moments of tragedy, why community matters more than ever, and how faith intersects with modern business and technology. Throughout the episode, Steve offers a candid look at the frameworks and principles that guide his decisions.

We discuss:

• Steve’s early life, football career, and the turning points that reshaped his path

• Why Hollywood often resists faith and what cultural shifts Steve sees happening today

• The “Mission, Team, Self” framework, and how it applies to leadership and decision making

• Building Pray.com as a sustainable platform across software, media, and subscriptions

• The importance of strong men, building community, and taking accountability

Links:

Pray.com - https://www.pray.com/

Platform Revolution by Geoffrey G. Parker - https://a.co/d/1aNzUXU

Steve on X - https://x.com/SteveGatena

Topics:

00:00 - Intro
03:21 - Charlie Sheen and Hollywood vs. Christianity
10:57 - Pray.com since Charlie Kirk’s death
13:35 - The journey to becoming a hope dealer
19:20 - Lessons playing football for Pete Carroll
23:58 - Developing the Mission, Team, Self framework
33:26 - The America Prays initiative
41:49 - Rescuing men
01:05:37 - How do you know if Pray.com is successful?
01:17:13 - Building a customer data platform
01:25:14 - How do you know if you’re being a successful CEO?

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