Brandon was raised by a single mother in Flatbush with his two siblings and attended John Dewey High School in Coney Island, New York. Brandon then embarked on an Odyssean journey that would take him through many twists and turns, as well as several self-reinventions, but would always revolve around his two strongest abilities: managing people and offering services.
Brandon began his career in the foodservice and hospitality industry as the manager of a hospital cafeteria in Baltimore. He then relocated to a stunning new Hyatt in the city's newly renovated inner harbor.
Brandon, one of the company's youngest restaurant managers, was in charge of the location's two busiest restaurants, ensuring that the new hotel would be a success for years to come. Brandon returned to his hometown of New York after his tenure at the Hyatt, where he worked as a manager at the Hard Rock Café in the late 1980s.
Many of the players Brandon would eventually represent professionally met him there; they were regulars at the famed 57th Street bar and diner. At his second restaurant, the Sporting Club, which was New York City's first full-service sports bar, Brandon met even more players.
Brandon began his career in sports marketing there, recruiting sportsmen as "guest bartenders" for charity events and as honorary guests of honor during "Fight Nights," where the pub would display satellite transmissions of major boxing contests. Brandon discovered as he got to know the players that they lacked a representative for speaking engagements and business appearances.
Brandon founded Steiner Associates (later renamed Steiner Sports) in 1987 with just $4,000, a one-room office, and an intern to fill that vacuum. The company developed slowly but gradually over the years, and by the late 1990s, Steiner Sports had hundreds of staff and represented the majority of the major players in the New York sports scene.
Around this period, the firm began to diversify its business into collectibles. Brandon had long requested that each of the players he represented sign artifacts for corporate presents and to attract new business customers; over time, the firms he worked with began to request these autographed things almost as frequently as the athletes' appearances.
Brandon's first book, The Business Playbook: Leadership Lessons from the World of Sports, was released in 2003. Brandon was a guest lecturer at several of the country's best business schools, including Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Business, Columbia, and Yale, as part of The Business Playbook's national book tour.
Brandon also began to be employed as a motivational speaker, a profession that took him to Fortune 500 organizations such as hotel chains, real estate firms, and endless trade shows. The aforementioned Steiner Sports partnership with the New York Yankees is maybe Brandon's biggest home run to date.
This historic cooperation began in 2004, with the goal of providing Yankees fans with real Yankees memorabilia and one-of-a-kind fantasy experiences at Yankee Stadium. Similar ties with Notre Dame Football, Syracuse Athletics, and Madison Square Garden were formed as a result of this.
Through meet-and-greets, speaking engagements signed memorabilia including game-used jerseys and equipment, and a variety of other items and services, each of these collaborations brings fans closer to the sports and athletes they love. By purchasing the sole rights to the dismantled Old Yankee Stadium in 2008, Steiner Sports developed another unique market.
Fans now have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take home seats, placards, Monument Park bricks, and hundreds of other unique artifacts that breathe new life into the old stadium, thanks to Steiner's creation of a full genuine Stadium product line. Steiner Sports now has a revenue of $40 million per year and employs 100 employees.
Brandon has been a consistent fixture in the media outside of the workplace, and he is a regular on ESPN Radio 1050, in addition to his co-hosting responsibilities on Yankees-Steiner: Memories of the Game, which is broadcast on the YES Network.
Brandon is also regularly featured as a sports and marketing expert pundit on national news networks such as CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, and ESPN, as well as in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He appeared on the MLB Network multiple times recently to promote the MLB Fan Cave.
Brandon was also a founding member of Syracuse University's David Falk Sports Management Program. He also serves on the Syracuse Athletics Board of Directors. Brandon donates the majority of his little spare time to many charities, including Family Services of Westchester, which aids families and children by providing outstanding social and mental health services.
Family Services of Westchester has been able to open two group homes for adolescent boys and girls who have no place to call home because of Brandon's assistance. Brandon's second book, You Gotta Have Balls, was released in 2012 by Wiley & Sons and details his long career and the life and business lessons he acquired along the way.
Brandon, his wife Mara, and their two children live in Scarsdale, New York. He is still a die-hard Syracuse Orange fan who arranges a weekly basketball game for his coworkers and friends at his home.
