‘I gave my boss two weeks’ notice, and she was shocked. I told her I was going to start a deli.’

BRANDYN WILLIAMS, Garden City

“I’m first-generation. My mom was right off the boat. She came from the Caribbean. She had me when she was 17 and fell into a coma when I was 7. She was in a coma until I was 21. She passed away. I never had a dad. I never really had a real childhood. My life was kind of like ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.’ I grew up in Queens. My aunt and uncle – like my Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv – they brought me out to New Hyde Park.

“Doors kept closing for me in high school. My basketball coach sat me when college recruiters came. I graduated at the bottom of my class in high school. I didn’t get into any of the colleges I wanted to get into.

“I started at Nassau Community College. While I was there, I was bartending at McHebes, Dizzy’s, Nachos [in Hempstead]. After that, I wanted to go where the money was. That would make me happy. I got into Queens College. I became a manager for the bars while I was there. School during the day, work at night.

“I graduated Queens College and got an intro position at Northwell Health. While doing that, the bars closed down. I had nothing to do at night anymore. I wanted to move up quickly. I wanted my master’s degree.

“I got my master’s, and was ready for the money. No one ever thought I would get a degree. I was 23 and started moving up the ranks. I became a financial analyst and started making good money. I had a pension, health benefits, everything I wanted. It’s dope. But I couldn’t stand going there. I hated everything about it – the commute, the mental toll, the culture of corporate. I was 26. I went to my family and told them I can’t do this. My aunt said to create an exit plan, and I did. I gave my boss two weeks’ notice, and she was shocked. I told her I was going to start a deli.”

Last year, I thought of something called a “cannoleria.” At 3 a.m., I mixed cannoli cream and Reese’s Pieces together. I ate it with a cannoli chip and was like, “Wow.”

“I started a deli called Cherry Valley with two partners. We franchised it and opened up in Long Beach. I was my own boss. I gave up my 9-5 to work 18 hours there. That’s why I’m bald now. I sadly lost the business to the pandemic. But every door that closed on me, I came back and bought the building. That’s my saying.

“I had to figure out, do I go back to the corporate world, or do I try something else? I was young, no kids, no wife. So, I started a bread route. I was driving every night from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. I would get baguettes, bagels. I went to 7-Elevens and grew it to 20 accounts.

“I had an idea at 4 a.m. There were no Italian ice carts on Long Island. With the little money I had, I built an ice cart. My aunt and uncle thought I was crazy. I built the cart and made it look luxurious. There were a lot of growing pains. Business was going good, but I wanted to do more.

“Last year I thought of something called a ‘cannoleria.’ At 3 a.m., I mixed cannoli cream and Reese’s Pieces together. I ate it with a cannoli chip and was like, ‘Wow.’ I went down a rabbit hole and drew up an entire business. There are no cannoli carts. Especially ones that do rainbow cookie, Oreo, unique flavors. I built a cannoli cart. Then I needed a partner.”

When I started putting myself first, the universe started taking people out of my life that weren’t meant to be there.

“In the past, I would put everyone else first. I was drinking and overworking myself. It didn’t feel healthy. I stopped drinking. I exercise and meditate every day. I was never into manifestation. I’m big into that now. When I started putting myself first, the universe started taking people out of my life that weren’t meant to be there. It started rewarding me with people that are helping me get to another level. When I started being a little more selfish, better things started happening.

“One of those things was my partner, Big Red [Tim Downey]. He’s 450 pounds and6-feet-6. I told him, I’m starting a cannoli cart, and he was in. It blew up in the first three months. It started getting so busy that I couldn’t keep up with it. Now we have cannoli carts, gelato carts; we’re doing events. I still wanted to do more. People were seeing the desserts online and wanted to try them. I was having people come to my office to try it. I realized I need a brick-and-mortar location.

“I called Roosevelt Field Mall over and over to pitch them. This opened in October. I drew it all up and brought it to life. The first three months it wasn’t doing as well as it should. I was here every night, sleeping on the couches. During the holidays, I left the bread route and spent all my time here. I’m a little peon compared to Starbucks and Auntie Anne’s. Big Red and I started being here more and talking to people. We were being ourselves, and everyone started gravitating towards us and the business. It’s going great now. People come from Connecticut, Suffolk County, Staten Island.

“My lease here is ending. We’re relocating and opening two more locations. This chapter is closing, and it was awesome. In August, I’m going to start a new chapter. New people, new locations.

“You’re going to get rewarded by the brick-by-brick things you do. Every failure, I learned something and took to the next chapter. I thought the failures were a door closing, but it was just a new chapter.”

‘Working in high school is tricky. Acting is what I love doing, and I’m grateful for these experiences.’

Garden City

“I’m an actor, singer and tap dancer. My big break was when I was 7 and shot the film ‘Prisoners’ with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. I didn’t know anyone, and I went up to Hugh Jackman and asked him if he had to audition for the movie. He said, ‘Oh, no.’ I said, ‘Lucky!’

“I’ve been in the business since I was a baby model. My first memory of acting is when I was 2 or 3. I booked a modeling job, and they dressed me up as Rapunzel. I wanted to be the best Rapunzel ever! I learned that I like getting attention from people. One of my funniest memories is when I was 11 and did a show called ‘Odd Mom Out.’ My character got her period, and there was a song and dance number called ‘Go with the Flow.’ There were even background dancers!

“I’m a senior in high school now. I either go straight from school to the city for auditions, or on Saturdays I go to a coach who tapes my auditions. I want to make sure I’m the best I can be. I bring my scripts to school, and my friend rehearses with me. Working in high school is tricky. You have a lot of pressure to keep your grades up, and that’s only when you book the job. You don’t really have excuses when you have to audition. It’s what I love doing, and I’m grateful for these experiences. It’s not for people who aren’t willing to put in the work. You have to be willing to not do clubs or sports. If I book a job, I’m out. I can’t go to every party and hangout.

“Though acting is a part of me, it’s not all there is to me. I’m on a tap competition team, and take three APs at my school; plus, I attend Long Island High School for the Arts. My most recent job was the Apple TV+ series ‘Dickinson,’ which starred Hailee Steinfeld. I played Emily Dickinson’s evil cousin. I got to dress up like I lived in the 1800s. The first time I tried on a corset, I couldn’t breathe! I tell people they can’t take rejection personally. I’ve worked on about 17 jobs, but I’ve gone on hundreds of auditions. I’ve learned that I have a lot of perseverance. I know that I can push myself to keep going no matter what. Sometimes I’ll miss a party because I’m waiting all day to film something. When I think back, I ask myself, ‘Was it worth it?’ My answer is always yes.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘I think every kid in America that puts on a helmet wants to play professionally, and I was one of those, but it wasn’t meant for me.’

Garden City

“I survived a brain aneurysm in 2008; I’m blessed every day I get out of bed. People ask all the time if it was related to football. It wasn’t; I never even had a concussion. I couldn’t hear; I was not hearing correctly out of one ear, and obviously when you get an MRI of the ear, you get the whole head, so they discovered it before it ruptured. I had surgery, and I’m alive and well. I was very lucky.

“I started playing football in the Police Boys Club of New Hyde Park. From there, I went to New Hyde Park Memorial High School. We actually won the Long Island championship; we had an undefeated team our senior year. Then I went to the University of Maryland. I got a football scholarship and a degree in recreation. I always wanted to be a coach, and I wanted to be involved in the corporate world. Back then, corporate fitness was just starting to come about. I learned about how to get ready to become an athlete; it was always second nature.

“I did not play professionally. I think every kid in America that puts on a helmet wants to play professionally, and I was one of those, but it wasn’t meant for me, so I went and did the next best thing.

‘We talk about everything except news of the day, fun stuff, things that I’ve done with these people. My motto is, I tell the story behind the story.’

“I earned the ‘Big Daddy’ nickname in 1985 when I was at the University of Maryland; one of my teammates gave me that nickname. He was actually bigger than I was — and I was 6 foot 4, 270 at the time — but he had his own nickname already.

“I started Coastal Advisors LLC. I’m CEO and founder, that’s my main business, my insurance practice. I’m an insurance consultant for over 500 professional athletes — injury, life and all other kinds of insurance. Clients are people I know; Obviously, people research me, people see me on TV, I’m all over the place. You Google me, my name comes up quite a bit.

“My second business is Gas It Up Inc. I’m chief communications officer and I’m also a partner. We provide mobile fueling for trucking companies; we provide fuel for cars, fuel for construction companies, machinery. I fell into it. I was asked to insure the first truck that the company had. I remember scratching my head, thinking what am I doing with this one? Four years later, we have a successful company, with offices in Dallas, Philly and New York.”

“Giving back is so important. The Big Daddy Football Camp came about when some guys I knew from the neighborhood wanted to do it. I did it one year, and then the second year, my brother, Jimmy, partnered with me to host the camp. It’s at New Hyde Park High School, where we both went to school. We limit it to 100 kids, first come, first served. We have the good fortune to have connections in the NFL. We have college coaches and pro coaches and players come as volunteers to give back as well. Some of these kids’ parents can’t afford to take them to a game. We’re extending an opportunity to these kids to see people they see on TV and they look up to. The camp has been around seven years. We have some kids playing in high school doing very well.

“My podcast, ‘Big Daddy and Friends,’ airs once a week on sportsnaut.com. We bring out big-name celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment, I’ve got a Who’s Who on there — Andy Reid, head coach of Kansas City Chiefs; Adam Schefter from ESPN (also from Roslyn); Joe Buck, lead host of ‘Monday Night Football.’ I’m saving my brother, Jim Salgado, assistant coach of the Buffalo Bills, for a little later. We talk about everything except news of the day. [It’s] fun stuff, things that I’ve done with these people. My motto is, I tell the story behind the story. I’ve had the good fortune to make guest appearances on Fox before the Super Bowl, but someday want to host a TV show.

“There’s also the Big Daddy Celebrity Golf Classic and SHER Women’s Luncheon at Oheka, usually in June. We’ve done five so far, and we have some big names — Tracy Morgan, Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, the list goes on and on. It benefits a different charity every year. We’ve done St. Jude, Long Island Children’s Museum, Kids Need More. One of my proudest achievements is my connection to SHER, a group that works for women’s empowerment. My best friend and business partner, Anzhelika Steen-Olsen, is the founder and CEO. I’m the ambassador for the group. It’s part of the United Nations initiative HeForShe, which focuses on gender equality. I attend events, and a bunch of my celebrity clients support the group. I’m a big believer in the saying, ‘Behind every good man is a great woman.’”

Interviewed by Barbara Schuler

‘I had a 10 percent chance of getting pregnant even with IVF because of my age.’

Lisa Pineda, Garden City

“I met my husband later in life. I’m a serial monogamist. I was really into my career, and having a family didn’t cross my mind. When I was ready to start a family, it was a struggle for me. Being the natural girl that I am, I was really reluctant to go down the IVF [in vitro fertilization] path.

“After trying to get pregnant for a year, visiting a doctor, having the doctor tell us some devastating news — I had a 10% chance of getting pregnant even with IVF because of my age — I knew in my heart this had to be wrong because I had gotten pregnant and miscarried before.

“When I found out that I got pregnant, I couldn’t believe it at first. I had been so disappointed along my fertility treatments that I kind of numbed myself. Every time I went through the process, I was so scared to find out the test results. The first step was one intrauterine insemination and that resulted in a miscarriage. The second one was another IUI, and that failed. Because of my age, my husband and I wanted to fast-track everything.

“When I did one IVF, I got pregnant. But because IVF is so stressful and so filled with anxiety, I couldn’t trust that it was going to really happen. When I finally met all my milestones and I graduated from the IVF clinic, the doctor literally told me, ‘You don’t have to come back.’ That’s when I finally felt relieved and overjoyed and grateful that it was going to become a successful pregnancy.

“I am a yoga instructor. Luckily, I was able to use the tools in my back pocket to help me go through some of the toughest times when I was going through IVF.

“When I miscarried, it was me getting back on the mat. That gave me the opportunity to get grounded and to center my breath. It gave me the opportunity to trust my body. Yoga is this calming practice. That’s what my body needed, especially to get pregnant.

“My book is dedicated to all the women and men who are struggling to build a family, whether they are trying to conceive naturally or using fertility treatments. Yoga, meditation, breathwork can help in so many ways. It offers the best guidance based on my personal experience with IVF and helping hundreds of women overcome their fertility struggles and actually achieve pregnancy.”

I like to tell anyone who starts yoga to not think that it’s about the physical postures. It’s about simply showing up.

“Eventually, I quit my corporate job and started my own yoga business. From there, I basically started teaching women who were pregnant and women who wanted to feel better after the pregnancy. That’s when I was trying to conceive. I took a break from yoga.

“After I had my son, I made it my mission to give back and start my Yoga for Fertility business. The yoga community here is so tight-knit. They share a deep connection here on Long Island. I think that because of this shared experience of something intense that the potential of bonding is high.

“What I love about teaching on the beach is that I’m grateful that I get to share this gift of yoga with students who can find freedom from their mind. They don’t have to be experienced. The physical postures bring them back to the breath, and they’re able to connect more with themselves. This is a stressful life we all live.

“Finding freedom from your mind and being able to give yourself that connection with yourself, it’s unlike any other workout. Practicing yoga on the beach, you’re connected with the elements of the wind, the beach, the water, the beautiful sunsets. Practicing yoga on a Long Island is like no other place.

“I like to tell anyone who starts yoga to not think that it’s about the physical postures. It’s about simply showing up. It’s not about touching your toes or bending your body like a pretzel. It’s about clearing your mind through the physical postures and getting back to the breath. Yoga is about the breath. It helps us to clear our mind and stay present.

“I like to tell each student — whether they’ve been practicing for quite some time or if they are new — that they just simply have to show up. It’s not about perfection. Yoga is a practice and it’s constantly evolving. That’s the beauty of it.”

Interviewed by Tracey Cheek

‘Passions are innate in all of us, and it’s so important for us to follow them.’

Garden City

“Ten years ago, I had an idea for a story. I’m an attorney by trade, but I said to my wife, ‘I think I’m going to write a short film.’ I based it on stories I heard growing up about my family in Brooklyn. I had never taken a writing class. I asked a client of mine in the entertainment business to read it and he said it was very good.

“Through him, I met Federico Castelluccio from ‘The Sopranos.’ Next thing I know, Paul Sorvino and other guys from ‘The Sopranos’ were acting in my film.

“I enjoyed writing so much that, while writing the screenplay for the feature length version of the film, ‘The Brooklyn Banker,’ I also wrote a play; ‘A Queen for a Day’ starred David Proval and Vinny Pastore and did really well Off-Broadway. You’re not making money doing this. In fact, this passion I had was costing more than I was making.

My philosophy is that you have to create every day.

“You’re making something from nothing, and the creative process is very fulfilling. I was seeing the fruits of my labor coming out of these wonderful actors’ mouths.

“I also found myself sketching. Federico said he wanted to see some of my work and then invited me to an abstract art exhibit. I started immersing myself in art.

“Next thing I know, I’m having an exhibit in the city! My work has progressed, and I’m starting to mature into different areas. It was all organic. Most recently, I decided to take my existing pieces, rip them into shreds, and then re-weave them together. That became my latest exhibit at Long Island University, ‘Woven.’”

“My philosophy is that you have to create every day. You will have taken something from nothing, created it and given it out to the world. These passions are innate in all of us, and it’s so important for us to follow them.

“At the end of the day, you don’t want to say, ‘I had that idea! I could have done that!’ Being an attorney has taught me to think logically and put things in order, which has helped me in my many artistic journeys.

“I put my time in, and I work at it. If you just hope, it won’t happen. I’m happy that any success I have now didn’t happen when I was 21 because I wouldn’t have appreciated it. Now I can point to my creative pursuits and say, ‘I did that. I put my mind to it and I did it.’”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘Melanoma can happen to anyone: any age, gender, or ethnicity.’

Garden City

Mollie, our daughter, was 20 years old and a sophomore in college when she discovered a mole high on her thigh. She called us from school because she was alarmed. It was bleeding through her pants and, not having a background in melanoma, I just said to come home, and we’ll go to the dermatologist and get it taken care of. The biopsy revealed she had a late-stage melanoma. It was something that we were totally unprepared for. She had a college physical in September, and this was in February, so it was missed, and unfortunately because of the location of it on the back of her thigh, I don’t think she noticed it until it started to be bothersome.

“Now we tell people that if you see a change in a mole to try to take a picture of it, go to your doctor, have it analyzed, biopsied, and that could save a life. She went to Memorial Sloan Kettering and had very intense chemotherapy. This was in 2000. Unfortunately, she passed six months later. It was just devastating. We never saw it coming. She was athletic; when she was in high school, she was captain of her tennis team and played other varsity sports.

Mollie never appeared sick. However, she definitely fit a profile: she was blonde, fair-skinned, freckly, very light blue eyes, but she never went to a tanning bed, and she wasn’t a tan fanatic. I won’t say that she didn’t have sunburns from childhood; she did. We went to the beach. We definitely used sunscreen and an umbrella. But we’ve learned so much since. As a result of her passing, our family – Mollie’s the third of four children – established a foundation in her memory with the hope that we could help others who are battling the disease and foremost prevent it, because we know now that skin cancer and melanoma are largely caused by UV rays and are preventable and melanoma, if caught early, is curable.

“We don’t designate any of our funding for research. We thought we could make a bigger impact with prevention and education. Luckily, since she was diagnosed, research has improved therapies and drugs for people with advanced disease. These advances certainly give a lot of hope to current day melanoma patients, which we didn’t have when she was diagnosed. We’ve been very involved in education and prevention. We developed a film for middle school students to explain the importance of sun protection and mole identification.

One person out of five will be diagnosed with skin cancer. And one person every 55 minutes dies of melanoma. The skin is our largest organ, and we have to protect it.

“What we wanted to do was to change behaviors for young preteens and teenagers and warn them against tanning beds because they are worse than the sun in terms of UV damage to the skin. We gave out thousands and thousands of copies. After that, we focused a lot on public service announcements and social media campaigns. One of them was ‘Free Killer Tan,’ which really was targeted for high school girls.

“When I think about all of the girls we met when we would do school presentations who acknowledged that they went to tanning beds before prom, we thought this was a wonderful audience for us to bring that message to through YouTube and social media. Recently, we did a campaign on ‘solar distancing,’ capitalizing on the social distancing theme because of COVID. The PSA graphically shows sun damage from 95 million miles away in a very attention-getting ‘Star Wars’-like segment. Basically, what we’re trying to do is to reinforce the importance of sunscreen, sunglasses, protective clothing, seeking shade, some basic things that may seem routine to a lot of people, but it doesn’t always pan out that way. We donate gallon-dispenser jugs of sunscreen to different communities. We also did a blitz social media campaign for ‘Skinny on Skin,’ an online program for hairdressers.

“We know that women will see their hairdressers on the average of every six weeks, more frequently than they’d ever go and see their dermatologists. Now everyone in that salon community after taking this short online course has an opportunity to be a skin cancer prevention advocate, suggesting to their clients if they see a lesion or something suspicious that they need to see a medical professional.

“One person out of five will be diagnosed with skin cancer. And one person every 55 minutes dies of melanoma. Melanoma can happen to anyone: any age, gender, or ethnicity. The skin is our largest organ, and we have to protect it. Hopefully, through continued and ongoing efforts, we will change behaviors and reduce these statistics.”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘I realized I’d have to insert myself in the world in a way that felt like I had confidence because I had none at all except for with my piano playing and songwriting.’

Garden City

“I was not a particularly sociable young man. Theater and being able to play piano was a way for me to not ‘literally’ communicate with people, but to still communicate with people. I felt really uncomfortable being at a high school party and doing the things you’re supposed to do at high school parties that I’ve seen in teen movies, but I felt really comfortable at the party if the family had a piano and I could sit and play a song from ‘Les Mis.’ It was a great way for me to be like, ‘Hey, this is who I am,’ without actually ever having to communicate with another human being. That continued for me through undergrad at NYU.

“When I got there I realized I’d have to insert myself in the world in a way that felt like I had confidence because I had none at all except for with my piano playing and songwriting. I knew I wanted to write musical theater and would write the music with somebody else’s lyrics. Then I realized that finding another person to write the lyrics for me would involve having to insert myself into social situations with other human beings who I didn’t know. I thought, ‘What a terrible idea! I should just write lyrics myself.’

“By the end of my time in undergrad, lyrics became just as important to me as the music. I turned into the man I am as my writer voice was taking shape. My work has always been so tied to who I am as a person and how I’ve moved about the world. It doesn’t feel that long ago where I was nervous about being in small groups of people. It’s so funny to me that I don’t even think about it anymore. It’s the same with performing. When I was a kid I loved theater so much and I just wanted to be in the theater even though it scared me. I loved the environment.

“If there was anything I could do to be in a theater I would do it, even if it terrified me. I never imagined 15 years ago that I would be able to casually get on a Broadway stage with a keyboard and play a concert off-the-cuff, or that I would be playing a concert at Lincoln Center, talking to the audience and playing my own stuff. It’s not even work now. I love it and it’s just another day! It’s so far removed from what more than half of my life was.”

“When I started writing musicals, I was most fascinated by what it feels like for people who feel like they don’t quite fit in. I am fascinated by people who don’t necessarily seem remarkable in general. Part of that is from growing up in Garden City, in the suburbs. It’s not like living in New York City or Hollywood. It’s this idea that this is where normal people are. Finding the strangeness and the weirdness in people who are either normal or on the fringes is ingrained in me.

“I have many songs where a character will have a huge emotional moment, but the subject matter of the song is very small. In ‘Michael in the Bathroom’ from ‘Be More Chill,’ Michael has a panic attack in the bathroom about getting in a fight with his friend. I have a song in ‘The Black Suits’ called ‘Social Worker’ about a kid having a panic attack recounting a visit to the school social worker; he says the visit is no big deal. I love the idea of using musical theater to examine small moments and dramatize them in a way that makes them as dramatic on a stage as they feel in real life.

“The natural progression of that is looking at characters who normally have to exist on the sidelines. I’m drawn to misfits because in my experience, I have certainly felt like that. I have been able to find my tribe and find my family. I love that I think that’s something that happens in real life and I want to try to do that in my art. What’s funny about that is even in the show where everyone’s a misfit, there’s still going to be people who are more ‘misfitty’ than others. I’m always like, ‘But what happens to that one when she leaves?’ or ‘Why can’t that one have a song?’

“That’s why in my musicals I have huge songs for characters that other people would call minor. They’re only minor because we happen to be watching a story about character A, but when character B walks off the stage, they’re the center of their own story. That’s something that so amazing about theater, because at a certain point someone will have a scene and they’ll walk out of the playing space of that room and go somewhere. I love thinking about how that character is going somewhere and we don’t know where!”

“As my voice was forming as a musical theater writer, I wrote my first musical, ‘The Black Suits,’ which is set in Garden City. It’s about a high school garage band trying to win a Battle of the Bands. I couldn’t help but write about the suburbs and the world that I grew up in. When people see it or listen to it, they automatically assume that I was a rocker kid who was in a band. That could not be farther from the truth. As much as I see a lot of my own life and the people in my life in that show, it’s not autobiographical at all. It was this idea of looking at a garage band like a family that comes together with the knowledge that college is going to break everyone apart. That came from this idea of working on theater and being in rehearsal.

I love the idea of using musical theater to examine small moments and dramatize them in a way that makes them as dramatic on a stage as they feel in real life.

“I came up with the idea when I was musical directing my brother’s production of ‘The Wiz’ at Garden City High School. I was in undergrad and they had lost their musical director, so I did it. Being around high school kids after I was four years removed from high school made me feel like there was a real connection. I wanted to write something about theater and this idea that you’re so close to these people, you spend all of your time with them, and then the show opens and you don’t see them anymore. ‘The Black Suits’ comes from how it’s so celebratory but also melancholy. It takes on a new meaning now because of the last few really wild years. I was working pretty constantly after writing ‘Be More Chill’ and seeing it have a life on Broadway. BMC led right into ‘Broadway Bounty Hunter’ Off-Broadway, and that led to ‘Love in Hate Nation’ at Two River Theater, and that led to BMC in London. It was really exciting, and then the pandemic happened and shut it down.

“It has been the strangest year because I have been going nonstop since 2017 and then it felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. The city has always felt like home because my grandparents and my aunt would take me there all the time when I was a kid. I never thought there was any way that New York City was going to shut down. I could not imagine a world where Broadway was not happening even for a day. The fact that it has been this long is beyond wild.”