We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brandon Ramos a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2020 in the midst of a pandemic I moved out of my hometown (New York City) to Ohio. I am born and raised in New York but spent a few years in Denver. That time away was enough to give me the sense that there was a different life I could be living outside of the big apple. A life where bird song was not drowned out by car horns. A place where the chili is sweet, the trains are non existent, and saying goodbye to a friend is a saga. While the world held its breath in 2020 I rolled the dice on the buckeye state.

I like to say that there’s a pipeline from the midwest to New York that every 20 something year finds their way into. I was going the “wrong” way, swimming upstream. The “meme state” Ohio has given me perspective on how you can continually change your environment to better fit you. The art community here is more inviting, the air feels fresher, my commute is 10 mins instead of 60. I live in a walkable historic neighborhood while paying less for rent.

I laugh when some of my friends say “New York or Nowhere”. For me living in New York was getting me nowhere. The choice of living in bushwick with 3 roommates from Iowa or at home with my mom forever isn’t one that I romanticized.

New York and more specifically Queens is dear to my heart, always. One of the most diverse places in the world and beautiful because of it. I’d love to go back one day with the ability to make it a life like the one I have here. Ohio has taken the native new yorker horse blinders off. I’m grateful for it, I’m happy it’s set the bar high, I don’t know if my hometown can ever match it for me.

Unless I come upon a ton of money… As soon as I pay off my car loan and work through my art block it’s over for y’all!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a light bender, and a handler of glasses! I’m an Optician. I cut ophthalmic lenses and dispense contact lenses so that the light from the world may hit the retina in your eye with prescription accuracy. I’m a hobbyist photographer. I take pictures with my digital and film cameras channeling the scene of lights in front of me through prism and pixels and onto your instagram feed. I also work at a brewery, handling lots of glasses of a different kind.

I love the common between my career as an optician and my art escape as a photographer. They both involve both technical and stylistic approaches that vary greater on client need. Some folks want that chunky black frame, some other folks want that gritty black and white photo.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before I became an optician I was working in a salad bar in midtown manhattan. It was thankless and exhausting but I did make a salad for DJ Kahled once. Any way I got into a really low time in my life after a heartbreak and decided to apply to a very cute store I had gone into in SoHo. I didn’t think I was the right kind of charismatic person they were looking for. Luckily for me they loved me from the first interview and I went from a sales person to an apprentice optician at the Warby Parker flagship store.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Having pride in your work and showing it outwardly. In a world of growing soulless online sales, and expensive doctor’s offices that push you into things, I want to believe that there’s a secret third option. I have pride in working at an independent optical with reasonable prices and great products that we stand by with warranties and I say that to every patient that will listen. They know I’ve got their back, I know they’ll tell their friends and coworkers about the cute little optical and the fella with the fluffy hair that runs it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: bran.bran

Image Credits

julia saulė goodman