“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” – A quote from every successful self-employed person, ever.

One of the greatest traits of successful entrepreneurs is the ability to say one word. For much of his life, Lucas Rodrigues struggled with that word, and early on in his opportunity at USHEALTH Advisors, Lucas’s inability to express that word almost cost him his career.

That one word? Let’s let Lucas explain.

“What I struggled the most with at the beginning of my career at USHA was learning how to tell people NO,” says Lucas, “how to put myself first and be able to tell people no and what I should focus on in my business and in my career to be able to get to the next level. I’m much better with that now. After being at USHEALTH Advisors for three years, I think that’s the main reason why I was able to finally find success here, working as an agent, kind of being average for three years – and then I realized I needed to change things around and learn how to tell people no.”

Lucas knew his desire to always be available was derailing his ability to grow exponentially at USHA. Saying no to the things that don’t serve you, don’t serve your goals, or your mission – opens the door to saying yes to the things that truly matter.

“I was being a people pleaser,” says Lucas. “I was always trying to please everyone around me but I needed to create financial stability for me and my family. I’m born and was raised until my teen years, in Brazil. In Brazil we have a culture that we kind of just work to live – instead of the culture that we have here in America – that we have to do more in order to be able to find true financial stability. I had to tell other people no. I cannot go to a birthday party because I have to work. I cannot go to a barbecue because I have to stay in and put some action into my business. I have to say no to a lot of things – and say yes to work.”

But saying yes to work wasn’t easy either. Lucas was introduced to USHEALTH Advisors by his cousin who worked out of the Orlando, Florida office, but Lucas and his family were living in Tampa. So while he traveled to Orlando for training, he worked remotely from his home in Tampa. For Lucas, being remote wasn’t making him more productive, it was stifling his growth.

“My whole life was in Tampa, my kids were here, my kids from my previous marriage, so I just went to Orlando, did the training and then for the first few years at USHA I worked remotely out of my Tampa home. And I was still living paycheck to paycheck. I was not doing the most I could possibly do. I got very complacent working, sitting there in my boxers, I felt like I was self-employed, with too much freedom. It was me not taking accountability – and not trying to go to Orlando more often to learn a new system and learn to be more. So I got to a point that I felt like, what am I doing here? I’m three years in, and I see all these people that work in the office making more money, being able to provide for their families – buying cars and houses and some of them becoming leaders. And that’s when, three years in, I called my cousin and I said, “Hey listen, I’m either going to quit and go back to hospitality, or I’m actually going to decide to go in the office and go all out because at first I was not fully bought in.”

The gift of a transfer from Orlando to the Tampa USHA office opened the door for Lucas to work closer to home, albeit, still an hour drive to and from work each day. But now, Lucas was driven to succeed.

“I think I lacked a little bit of confidence,” says Lucas. “I lacked on training because I didn’t get all the training that I see my agents get now. I think another thing was I my accent at first kind of got in the way. I thought that I was a little bit behind because my English is not perfect. But that’s one thing that, once I got in the office here in Tampa and I surrounded myself with people like Max Willett and Brian Fuller and the other power associations I developed, changed me. They taught me you have to try to be the very best version of yourself and push yourself to live that uncomfortable life – and the challenging life – that’s the only way you’re going to grow. Once I started doing better as far as selling, then I started building more confidence and I was able to kind of turn around my whole career.”

“But that only happened after the first three years at USHA, because for the first three years I didn’t work as many hours as I should have. I was taking way too many breaks. I was not working weekends much. I was not learning anything new. I didn’t have the good competition that we have in the office, the healthy competition that sales gives you. When I finally came into the office, I put my pride aside. And then, and I’ll never forget this, I set my wife and my kids down, back then my son was 14, my middle son was 11 and my daughter was a newborn, and I said to both of my boys and my wife, “I know you guys are used to seeing me around, I’m always here, I’m always going to all the birthday parties, all the outings, but it’s time for me to be selfish with my time, but not for me in a selfish way, I’m doing this for you.”

“It was time for us to make something happen here because I wanted to provide my family with a better future. I wanted to be able to put the kids in private school, I wanted them to feel proud of their dad and I didn’t want to go back to hospitality industry. I did that for 12 years. I worked in fine dining places. I ran a kitchen for a couple of years, but I didn’t want to go back to that kind of life and work for someone and be a W-2 employee – I knew there was more to get out of USHA. I saw my cousin and family members being successful here and other people that came with me into this opportunity, but I’m like, it’s time for me to kind of lock in, kind of silence all the noise outside and go all in. And that’s what I did. I came into the office in 2022 and I really, that year, I put everything else aside. It’s kind of weird to say this, but even with my kids, I put everything before them and I locked in and that year and I was able to triple my annual volume in sales and triple my income that year. And then I was asked to become a leader.”

Lucas resisted leadership at first, only wanting to focus on his new personal production levels, having written nearly $1.5 million in personal volume that year when he went all-in. But his leaders persuaded Lucas that he could be the one to set the example for others, to show them the way, and teach them how to be successful.

Lucas finally agreed to give leadership a shot. But just like he found with starting in the insurance business, you have to embrace the suck to get going. Stepping in to teach others has its rewards, but it also comes with a laundry list of new challenges.

For every level, there’s another devil.

“The first six months was a huge challenge,” says Lucas. “I’m not going to lie, many, many times I thought about just walking into Max Willett’s office and tell him, “Hey, I’m ready to step down. It’s not for me.” I was going to just throw in the towel. But I stuck to it. And then after the third quarter that year, and then the fourth quarter, I had a good team – 20 agents, and a couple of agents doing really well – and so I got excited about the small wins for my agents. I saw agents able to leave their parents’ house to get their own apartments, agents buying their new first new car, paying off their credit card debt, and making real money. And my first newbie I ever hired became a top producer, she did $250,000 AV in her first 13 weeks, then $250,00 AV again in her second 13 weeks.”

“So then I’m like, you know what, I can do this. I can help people. And then my team started doing really and that first year we finished number five in the nation, we did almost $10 million AV. And then I ran it back for the second year as a Field Training Agent, which was last year in 2024. That team, we finished number one as an FTA team, we did $18 million plus and we broke the regional FTA record and I was promoted to a Field Sales Leader role and so here we are. A lot has changed for the better.”

Change is inevitable, growth is optional. Lucas grabbed the reigns on growth and he has transformed life for himself and his family, even for his Mom, who, after bringing her children to Brazil many years before, moved back there to live.

“My mom had a cousin that moved to the U.S.  – and this is 40 years ago we’re talking about – and she kept telling my mom, you should come to the U.S. with your kids and bring them here so they can learn a second language. In Brazil, they’re really big into learning English. People have that mentality that once you go experience America and learn the language, it’s going to help you get better jobs in Brazil. So we were like 15 or 16 years old and my mom was basically raising us as a single parent because my dad was kind of in and out of the picture.”

“My dad was a big gambler, actually had a gambling addiction. He’s a good person, a great person, but gambling took the best of him. So, my mom said, “Let’s go to the U.S., let’s go for about a year. You guys can learn a different culture, learn English and we’ll come back and then you guys can think about college and all that.” So when I left Brazil, I never imagined we were going to actually stay here and live here in the United States – and make our lives here. I remember the last time I was saying bye to my dad and I was like, “Oh, I’ll see you next year. I’ll see you in a few months.” But the next thing you know we moved here, for good.”

“I have a twin brother and I have an older brother, about a year older. It was the three boys and my mom and when we moved here we stayed at my aunt’s house, since she was already living here in America. She helped us get on our feet. My mom started working as a nanny. We had no papers at first. My older brother started working at a restaurant as a busboy. My twin brother and I went to high school, it was, I think our freshman year of high school. Then, we eventually got our papers. My mom married an American guy and got her green card. We became citizens four or five years later. So, we moved here with the intent to stay here for a year – and I didn’t go back to Brazil until 2014. So we stayed here for 14 years. I didn’t see my dad for 14 years. I didn’t see a lot of my family members for 14 years.”

“Looking back, it’s crazy how life goes. I never thought we’d end up here in the U.S. Then I had kids and my whole life is here now. I am 40 years old, so I lived 15 years of my life in Brazil and 25 years of my life here in the U.S. So I’m more Americanized now than Brazilian at this point. I have lived here longer than I lived in Brazil.”

And now Lucas knows it wasn’t just coming to America, it’s also finding USHEALTH Advisors. For Lucas, as it is is for many others, it’s the right environment, the right people, the right support, the right heartfelt mission – all adding up to build a foundation and the right mental attitude for Lucas to succeed.

In the right surroundings, with the right people, all that’s left then to be successful, is taking action, massive action.

“I look at myself three or four years ago, and I’m a whole different person now,” Lucas says. “It’s not because of the money, because now I am financially stable. It’s all the struggles. They’re the learning curves. The confidence that I have now learning how to talk to people and learning how to communicate better. That’s one thing that I always struggled with because as I mentioned, I think in the back of my mind, I thought people wouldn’t understand my English. I have kind of a thick accent. But at the end of the day, if I know what I’m talking about, I can talk to anyone on the phone about health insurance and I’m super confident that I’m the specialist, I’m going to lead the call and I’m going to put the person in a better position than I found them – and if I can’t, then I’m going to send them to someone who can help them get what they need.”

But there are not only clients who need health insurance, and need him to lead the way, there’s Lucas’s family, who need him to be someone they can count on as well.

“I think the main thing is be able to provide for my kids,” says Lucas. “To make sure that they’re proud of me. They can look at me and think – my daddy is an immigrant that came to this country with nothing – and he made something help of himself. The main thing is I always like to make sure my kids are proud of me and they can look back at what I have done and say, my dad did it. He went all out and found a way to become successful. He didn’t have much growing up, moved to a whole different country, learned how to speak the language and provided well for us.”

As Lucas has learned, life’s greatest rewards come from giving and giving back. Givers gain. But you have to make sure you are in a place to give, which means working on you so you feel your cup is full, almost overflowing, because you can’t give what you don’t have. Lucas says he has a lot… especially when it comes to doing things right.

“I like to think that I have great integrity,” says Lucas. “I think it goes a long way. Just do the right thing. I always try to lift people up and point them in the right direction. I think that’s the main thing. I think that’s how I would like to be remembered. I tell my agents that I would love to be at your weddings and be able to see your kids grow up and be able to take this relationship that we have and still be in your lives 10, 20, 30 years from now. Right now we live this fast paced life and time goes by super quick, but it’ll be nice in 10 years from now, for us to look back and all be sitting at the table and we’re like, man, we had a good run.”

“But right now I tell my agents this is our time of sacrifice in our lives. This is the time that we have to put things on the back burner and focus on our career and making the money now and then eventually be able to collect the fruits of our labor. I know I’m not there. I tell my agents, some of you guys have been here one year, two years. I’m going on six years and I work more now than I worked at first, because I know that this is still my time of sacrifice and eventually I’m going to be able to slow down and work fewer hours and be able to spend more time with my kids. My daughter’s getting older now, she’s four years old, and she kind of understands I’m not home as much. I don’t get to spend as much time as I want with her.”

“But at the same time, I do live my life on a calendar and when I’m with her, I’m with her and I’m all in. Sunday is my family day. I have Saturday nights which is my time with my wife. Whenever I’m with my wife and my family, I’m present. I’m there spending time with them because I know a lot of people who work less than I do, but whenever they hang out with their kids, they’re on their phones. They’re not really paying attention to their kids. I feel like because I spend a good amount of time away from home, so when I’m with my daughter, I just tell my agents, “Hey guys, you have your other leaders to help you. If I don’t answer the phone, it’s not because I don’t want to help, but it’s because I need to be present with my family. I need to be able to be there for my daughter and be able to give her my time and be all in. And she knows that. “So I’m very intentional with my time now. I don’t waste time doing stuff that doesn’t matter basically. I value my time.”

“The bottom line is right now, I’m still building myself and others. My team is made up of winners, we’re financially stable, we’re good people. We develop, we grow, we’re more mature. I think that’s the main thing. And I think I realized with this job, this career, it’s very much a copy and paste career. I think that at first I looked around and thought all these other people are doing well, they’re successful, but not me, I’m not at their level, so how can I do as well as they do? And then when I came into the office every day, I realized, all I have to do is sit behind someone that’s doing better than I am, and copy and paste whatever they do, make myself better and eventually I’m going to be as successful and earning the money the same we they are. It’s a copy and paste career. You don’t have to be extremely smart, you just have to be adaptable. You have to learn, you have to change. If it’s not working, you have to pivot and execute. I think that’s kind of the main thing, copy and paste and you can be a winner too.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

That’s why I still work seven days a week. It’s fun for me, business is a sport, and this is my sport. I play it to win all the time. – Jason Blank

You get to make a choice in life, you can work to live, or live to work.

The best in business choose the latter because they love what they do, and it shows – so it’s really not work at all it’s literally an extension of who they are – and the energy they exude resonates with other people, bringing value into those lives.

Meet Jason Blank.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, especially when you are as dedicated and consistent and hard-charging as Jason. Jason first joined USHEALTH Advisors in October of 2016 and about two years later, we first spoke to share his story.

One thing hasn’t changed, and there’s a line I’ve included from his original story that bears repeating: “His name is Jason Blank. And for Jason, you can fill in the blank with one word; the word he believes and knows will bring about success. That one word is work.“

Jason has done and continues to do just that – work!! In fact, he’s been working so relentlessly Jason received another promotion within USHA for 2025, and with good reason, his teams have produced more than $395 million in annual volume. That’s a lot of insurance policies and ensured that Jason deserved a shot at building more teams as a Regional Sales Leader.

“I know what we’re doing is working,” says Jason. “It’s a proven system. I watch it work. I watch people’s lives change. I watch them change personally and develop themselves. And for me, that’s rewarding. I love people who win. And that’s one thing I’ve realized over the years since we (Jason and I), first talked six years ago, because back then it was about me winning. It was about me getting after it and me chasing my goals. But about four years ago is when I realized it was all about other people – I enjoy watching people win and I really dislike watching people lose, and that’s really just a choice, winning and losing. I love the people who push it and win. And that’s I think why I still work seven days a week is for that, which is a challenge, but also very rewarding at the same time.”

For some, success is about reaching a goal and stopping to admire the view. For Jason, the moment he reaches one peak, he’s already mapping out the next climb. It’s about discipline, drive, and an unshakable commitment to helping others win, especially when you have experienced what else is out there.

Jason lived the other side of the work world, first in the clubs, and then in the other “C” world and he says he would never, ever want to go back.

“I was young, I was really young just out of college,” says Jason. “All I had done prior to that first Corporate-America job was working the nightlife scene. I used to own and manage nightclubs and bars and restaurants, and I did incredibly well financially doing that, but I was managing drunk college kids the whole time, which got really annoying after a while. I finally got my degree in finance from the University of Central Florida and I knew I wanted to be a professional. So that’s kind of how I got sucked into corporate. It looked really good on paper, so I didn’t know any better. I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do in America; you put your shirt and tie on every day and you work your way up in a corporate company.”

Jason’s corporate job was managing a rental car company at one of the busiest airports in America and it was relentless.

“So, the rental car company was at the Orlando International Airport, which was their number one location in their entire company,” Jason says. “We rented like 3,000 cars a day on average there. It was a beast of an operation. And I was in my mid-20’s 26 right out of college, didn’t know any better. Jumped right into this operation management role, managing 40 and 50-year-old adults, which is honestly harder than managing the drunk college kids. The adults know how to get around the rules. So I was just miserable.”

“I thought that was the way to make real money and I was wrong. I didn’t know sales was the path to go down. And it took me a while, almost a year and a half to two years, before I realized that there were people working in corporate for five, six, seven years that had families and kids at home and were still making very little money – like $3,000 to $4,000-a-month after taxes. I couldn’t understand how people were surviving like that, and I didn’t see the upward mobility and the trajectory there.”

Feeling stuck and unsatisfied, Jason’s pivotal moment came when he took the advice of someone he trusted, his mom.

Sometimes, mother knows best.

“I remember I was sitting in a rental car one day,” Jason says, “and I called my mom so miserable, and I was like, “Why am I working here?” And she asked me the tough question, “What’s the point of having a job if you’re so miserable? Just quit.” And I told her, I don’t really know. I never quit anything before.”

“I didn’t really feel comfortable quitting, but she convinced me to and I did. I quit that job. I had nothing else lined up. But it was ok because I was done. It was awful, I had no life, working all week and then being off on Tuesday and Wednesday every week. I actually didn’t quit immediately – I told the company that I needed to take a little time to be with my family and I ended up traveling. I took out a rental car in the Dominican Republic. I took out a rental car in Las Vegas, used my benefits as long as I could and then eventually just told them I’m not coming back. And I was unemployed for three months.”

Then, while tossing back a couple of beers with some friends, Jason heard some things that led him to toss his hat into the ring with USHEALTH Advisors. Even though, at first, he thought the whole insurance thing seemed laughable.

“I was having drinks with some friends, and I was lost,” says Jason. “I wasn’t going to go back online looking for work. I wasn’t going to fall for another corporate trap. So I was asking my buddies what they were doing for work, and Chris George told me he was selling health insurance. And I’ll never forget, I laughed right in his face. I was like, “Okay, man, sounds great. Cool.” And then he said, “Yeah, and I made three grand last week. And I said, “What?” I was making $3,000 a month in corporate, so my ears perked right up. I was burned out from working 60-hours a week at the car rental agency, so I was looking for something different.”

For Jason, it was time for a cool change.

“At the start, at least for me, I looked at USHEALTH Advisors as a good stepping stone till I figured out what I wanted to do next in my life,” remembers Jason. “And I think you know how it kind of went from there. I got addicted to this job, I fell in love with this company, I fell in love with the opportunity, and the funny thing is I ended up working twice as much as I did when I was working in corporate. But the difference was I was working for myself. I was making a lot more money and I felt good about what I was doing because I was in full control over all of it.”

With this new feeling of being in charge of his own destiny, Jason hit the ground running, having a great time selling and being with his team. He shot to the top of the national leaderboard in personal production with USHA and, before long, moved from Orlando to West Palm and was promoted time and time again to other levels of leadership, running successful teams.

As Jason has learned in leadership over the past six years, for every level there’s another devil – the responsibility for – and taking care of more and more lives – every move up in the ranks means higher expectations for Jason and his teams.

“So what’s it like being a leader? I mean, it’s a double-edged sword,” he says. “There’s tons of advantages and tons of positive things that come from it, but it’s also extremely painful at times. And the more people that you have, the more challenges you have and you must care about your people and you tend to their issues. You have to solve problems for other people and retrain and reinvigorate and re-motivate. It’s not just like a set it and forget it type of position. It’s not like I can train you, make you successful, and then that’s it. I leave you alone and you do your thing, it doesn’t work that way. You constantly have to be on top of them, helping them, answering their questions, because some people, they don’t have the mental fortitude to push through the suck all the time. Not only are you a leader, but you’re a psychologist, you’re a loan specialist, you’re their rock, you’re wearing a bunch of different hats here. So it’s extremely rewarding and challenging at the same time. I love it.”

Jason says he also tries to set expectations with new recruits from the very beginning, so he makes sure the recruits he brings in, and his other leaders bring into USHA, know upfront what’s expected of them, and he is quick to hold these agents to the goals they told him they wanted to achieve and most importantly the commitments they made to themselves and their businesses.

Jason says, “I tell new people all the time when they come in, I didn’t apply for this job. That’s why the first question I ask people is, “What brings you to insurance? What makes you want to explore an opportunity like this?” Because I don’t think I ever would’ve applied for something like this on a job board. I had a friend that was doing it, he was making money. I didn’t know insurance could be so much fun or paid this well. I had no idea at the time. I don’t think I ever would’ve applied for this career. Definitely not back then. So I always ask the recruits when they come in, what brought you here? What made you click on our advertisement? What made you explore this type of industry? I’m always really curious to know.”

“In the early years here I had a reputation of being pretty aggressive in my leadership style. And only because I didn’t want low producers rubbing off on high producers. Over the years I’ve changed, I’ve gotten more lenient, and I kind of let the “mold sit” – and I try to get those people out of here in a respectful way. But listen, we have to grow and the trajectory of the company for the past couple of years has been growth. So I’ve been trying to get better on that, but I used to be hyper aggressive on cutting the cancer. If you were a little bit cancerous, I would get you out of my culture. And honestly, we always kept an extremely strong culture because of that.”

Jason knows he needs to stay in his lane, remain focused on growth, keep only those on the team who want to win, and do the one other thing that is at the core of who Jason Blank really is.

“I’d say my biggest piece to my success and the success of my teams is still the discipline. My discipline is what helps the team stay strong because they know I’m always going to be here. They know I’m always going to be watching. They know I’m always going to be taking mental notes on who’s doing what. And they know I like winners and they know I don’t like losers. So if you wake up one day and you’re wondering, “Damn, should I go to the office today? Should I put in some work?” It’s not even a thought for a lot of my guys. They know Jason’s going to be there, so they think, “If I don’t show up, he’s definitely going to notice I’m not there. And he’ll make a mental note about that.” So I still think to this day that my discipline and how bought in I still am with this great company is my biggest strength to growing teams.”

Discipline IS Jason’s secret weapon. Yet, it’s no secret that it’s a core ingredient in the recipe for long-term success. Jason developed his skill of discipline at a young age, doing bodybuilding and transferring those same traits into his business. It took years of sacrifice to learn to build himself into the man he is now.

“People ask me all the time, where did you learn the discipline, where did you learn to be like this?” says Jason. “People call me a robot all the time,” he laughs. “And I have to attribute that mostly to bodybuilding. I think that’s where it all came from, just because I’m highly, highly competitive and I don’t ever want to lose. And I will do whatever it takes to at least give it my all – my full best effort to win. So back during my bodybuilding days, I was on point. I never strayed away from my meal plan. I ate very regimented – on time all the time – hit my workouts that my coach had set for me to a tee, and on time, drank exactly the amount of water he told me to. My trainer said I was so on point with that, and I did it for a long time, five years straight of constant routine and never breaking diet.”

“Being able to overcome your thoughts of hunger when you’re hungry is the biggest mental strength ever. And if you can’t accomplish that, there are not many other things in life that you’ll be able to endure in my opinion. And for me, being able to harness and contain that type of urge I think is what made me as disciplined as I am today. And then that translates to sales because it’s the same thing. It’s time management, which I had to do a lot back when I was competing on eating at the right times and working out at the right times and making sure you’re not missing meals and still accomplishing my everyday tasks of going to school and working and all that other stuff. So time management was a huge, huge proponent from bodybuilding, the discipline, the mental toughness, pushing through the pain, all that stuff that translates to sales because you have to be good with time management. You have to be on point.”

Jason was so disciplined, so on point, it even got him a few other perks of the business.

“I was competing in bodybuilding very, very heavily back then, which was another huge passion of mine. I was very committed to that, and I ended up getting on a couple of book covers and some photography events out of that, which was great, because back then I wasn’t making money. So $600 to do a cover of a book was like, “Hell yeah, I’ll do that. I already took the picture, why not?”

But now, instead of appearing on the cover of a book, Jason is writing his life every day as a best seller, filled with the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and building and leading teams, partnered with a company he is exceptionally proud of. And make no mistake, his pride with this company and in his business model is something Jason refuses to compromise on and makes sure his new agents know the same.

“What sometimes people lose in translation. They think I’m just trying to be a hard ass,” he says. “It’s like by me forcing them to do what’s right, I’m simply going to make more money. My income is as earned now, no advances. This isn’t for my health. I tell the agents, “I’m doing this for you. That’s what it takes to be successful. And when you came onto the opportunity, you told me that you wanted to win.” People get mad at me all the time like, “Oh, he is so mean. He’s such a stickler.” It’s like, no, this is what you committed to and you told me you wanted to win. I’m just trying to guide you. And if I didn’t say anything about it, if I didn’t call you out, I would be a bad leader.”

Sports teams win because the leader has the vision and the team members are able to train, learn, and execute that system. It’s the leader laying out the principles of discipline and also persuading everyone to collaborate, become cohesive, and win as a team. It’s the I + the Me becoming the We. If everyone wants to win, the feeling becomes contagious. Jason has this down to a science. And now, almost nine years in with USHA, because he’s been working so hard, leading by example and winning for so long, he is able to take a little time to reap some of the rewards in his personal life. Giving back to those he loves.

“I accomplished my biggest goal last year,” says Jason, “which when I first started the career, I really wanted to get a house on the water and have a boat in my backyard so I can go fishing. And that’s always been my goal. When I was growing up, my dad and I used to go fishing every single weekend. I used to drive down the Intercoastal with my father, just wondering how people can afford to live on the water like that. Because my family growing up, we didn’t have money like that. So for me, we used to trailer the boat, put it in the water, have to go through that whole thing, and it was always a huge hurdle to do it. And we wouldn’t do it every weekend sometimes. It was just a lot. So for me, when I first started making money in this career, that was always my goal, get that house on the water and my boat, so I put my head down and I went after it.”

“Last year, I bought a nice house and I got a boat and I started fishing, and I’m really enjoying it. It gives me a little bit of margin, gives me a little bit of time off. It gets me outside of the office. I still work every single day, but sometimes I’ll, on a Sunday morning, take the boat out and go fishing. That’s why I did this past Sunday, took the boat out, caught two wahoos, went back, cut ’em up, cleaned the boat, and I was in the office before three o’clock.”

The house, the boat and the thing Jason now realizes is a huge, heart-warming accomplishment, to take his dad fishing too.

“My parents came down over Christmas break in December,” says Jason, “and I got to take my dad out on the boat, which was awesome. A complete 360 in the life circle. He used to always take me out when I was younger and now we’re on a bigger boat right behind my house, and it felt like old times again, man, it is actually awesome and a huge accomplishment for me. And I know my dad’s proud. I’m proud that he’s proud.”

“Full circle, man. Full circle. And it’s so awesome to have this because we gave up fishing when I went to college. My dad sold the boat. We had no use for it anymore. I was in Orlando, and my parents were in South Florida, so we were pretty far away from each other. I had gotten caught up in work and school and everything, so it wasn’t even a thing for us anymore. But I always remembered that, and that was always my passion. I always loved fishing. And I loved going out with my dad.”

So what’s next for Jason Blank? Nine years into his journey with USHEALTH Advisors and already accomplishing so much, what does the future hold?

Jason is quick to let you know, “I mean, just I’m a real guy and I do what I say I’m going to do. If I tell you I’m going to do something, I always stick to that and I always do it. There’s not, my word is my bomb. I’m pretty impeccable with my word. And if I tell you I’m going to do something, I do it. If I say, this is my goal, I’m going to achieve it, I’m going to do it. And I guess that’s one thing that people know about me, and that’s one thing that I would like people to continue to know about me, is he does everything he says he’s going to do.”

“I think my purpose right now is just watching and helping people win. Helping people get to what they consider success. That’s what I like the most. I love watching people win. Buy new cars, houses, vacations, start families, whatever. Or it’s that they’re pay off their debt, whatever they want. Everyone’s definition of success and winning is different, but I guess that’s my purpose right now is helping people win and watching them win. I really enjoy that. I absolutely despise losers. People that just don’t do what it takes and they cave in and they lose. I hate that, it actually makes me sad. Life is about winning.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky

“I’m just going to show up every day, every week, every month, every hour, every day. No matter what it is, no matter what the excuse is, no matter what the reason is, I’m just going to keep showing up.” – Austin (AJ) Baker

You could start and end this story right there. Showing up matters, big time. Especially if you want to be BIG TIME.

AJ Baker is one of the most successful team leaders and builders at USHEALTH Advisors, recently being promoted to serve as a Regional Sales Leader for the company. His numbers prove he’s showing up time and time again. AJ’s teams have amassed more than $442 million in issued business, (yes, $442 million), at USHA and AJ himself is closing in on $3 million in personal production.

But there’s way more to that story.

“Over and above the millions and millions in production numbers my teams have put up” says AJ, “I’m most proud of being the #1 Division Sales Leader Builder for three consecutive years, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and now getting on track to be the #1 Regional Sales Leader Builder at USHA.

So why show up? Usually, our beginnings dictate our future actions, good or bad. Hopefully, over time in our lives, we gravitate to the good things and learn lessons from the things that didn’t go so well. AJ reflects on how his childhood shaped his outlook on life. At the end of the day, and at the end of all of our days, life should come down to one thing: Love.

That means having others show up for you and you for them.

“My parents divorced when I was pretty young,” says AJ, “I think I was two or three years old. So, I was used to that being with my mom a good deal, my dad every other weekend. My mom worked a lot, so I lived with my grandparents for a little while and my mom, but whether it was in an apartment, or with my grandparents in a mobile trailer for a little while, it all worked out. As I was growing up, even though my parents split up and were working a ton, and even if I was living in a small apartment or living with my grandparents, or whatever, there was always an abundance of love from both my parents and my grandparents. It was so amazing and unconditional and I really appreciate that in my life.”

Especially when it comes to love, what goes around, comes around and at USHEALTH Advisors, AJ Baker is showing up and sharing the love every single day.

He’s sharing what he calls his gift.

“I think my gift is probably the ability to connect with a wide variety and diverse group of people,” says AJ. “And I don’t know what it’s called, but I find it easy to connect with people that are everywhere, whether it’s super successful people, or not as successful, in business or personally, male or female. I think I’ve always had this ability to really connect with everyone. I treat everyone with respect and care and I can meet them where they are. I believe it’s why I’ve had the privilege to have a lot of long relationships with different people throughout my life.”

“I’m honored to say not a lot of people want to leave a team that I’ve had the privilege of leading, it just doesn’t happen much. And again, I think it’s just my ability to connect and to care and help them put other people before yourself and do the right thing from a character standpoint. Don’t let your position of power influence you because someone’s coming to you for advice, or coming to you for insight, or they’re in a bad spot. Never use that against them, never hold that against them and never take advantage of it. Look to continue bettering people and better their situations. There’s a rule I have and my parents know it and my Senior Regional Leader Jason Greif knows it, everyone around me knows it… I don’t talk about people behind their backs and they know that I don’t like to hear it around me, even as a joke. People can’t even trick me into it. I just don’t do it.”

“I don’t like sharing other people’s stuff. I like meeting people where they are. I like connecting with people and understanding and truly looking out for them and trying to help them. I think that’s probably one of my biggest skill sets, having good character. Then there are two others: consistency and coachability.”

AJ refers to these as the three C’s. They are as important in his life as anything, whether it’s business, or personal. The three C’s matter, and they help AJ to prove that he matters.

“What I talk about a lot to people is about consistency, coachability and character,” says AJ. “Those really are the three C’s that I like to focus on in life, and I think it’s really, really tough to do that. At least I find it to be very challenging because I want to try and be the greatest of all time in this business, and I want to try and be the greatest father of all time and the greatest husband of all time. So it’s definitely a challenge.”

It’s obvious, listening to AJ share a good deal about his life, he not only wants to be a baller in business, but also be the bedrock of his family at home, with his wife Ashley, and his son, Wyatt and his soon-to-be-born daughter, Ava (in fact of the writing of this story Ava’s birth is just days away.)

Family matters. In fact, AJ says it tops his life list of things he’s most proud of. Considering how successful he’s been in business, and how much he loves to work, that’s saying something.

“My greatest accomplishment is being a father,” say AJ. “I’m a relatively new father. I have my son, Wyatt John Baker, and he is getting ready to turn two this April. And then also my daughter Ava Jaymes. We’re calling her little AJ. These are relatively newer things for me so I would absolutely have to say as my greatest accomplishment, I found a level of love that I didn’t know existed and a level of care that I didn’t know existed. I waited to have children. I’m 36 right now, so I had my first child at 34 and now, Ava at age 36. So I waited a little bit, but it’s everything for me.”

“It’s also my greatest challenge, honestly, trying to be extremely successful in this business, as an entrepreneur that wants to grow a team and invest so much time and energy and effort and resources to help my team to be themselves and to hone their craft. At the same time, try and maintain being a great father and a great spouse and a great child to my parents and a great sibling to my step brothers and sisters. I think that balancing act alone, if you want to accomplish extraordinary things and still be great at all of those things, for me it is a challenge. It weighs on you. It takes a toll. It does take a lot, a lot of thought and a lot of reflecting and a lot of patience and a lot of discipline and a lot of consistency, coachability and character.”

The middle of the three C’s, coachability, is a lesson AJ had to learn the hard way. While being an entrepreneur was literally in his blood – both his mom, dad, and grandfather have been entrepreneurs for most of their lives – in fact, AJ helped his mom with several of her businesses, sometimes even blood needs a little guidance to find its way to the heart of the matter.

That heart is discipline. And a teacher to tell it to you straight.

AJ first joined USHEALTH Advisors in 2016, being introduced to the opportunity by his dad’s friend, Paul Rishty, when his dad, Paul and AJ played golf together. When AJ finally contracted in the fall of 2016, he was able to experience the full gusto of the health insurance open enrollment period during the last two months of that year. AJ worked hard during that period and had great success. “My back was truly up against the wall,” says AJ. “I had moved in with my then girlfriend, Ashley, and her dog and I planned to come in to USHA knowing that open enrollment was right around the corner, and that was a good time for this industry. And then I ended up, I think issuing almost $150,000 in annual volume in my first 13 weeks.”

But as the new year 2017 rolled in, AJ started rolling out. He figured he knew enough now to take it a little easy.

“The wheels kind of fell off in February for me when I started to get lazy,” says AJ. “I started to think I can come in the office later and leave earlier, and I have more skill sets so I can work less and achieve the same results, because I had just earned probably half of what I had made in the prior year, in only four months. So I was rich, or I thought I was rich. And then I started playing golf, a lot. I started leaving the office early, started not working weekends, not putting in the time, blaming my leaders, blaming the leads, complaining, not coming in. And I did that for probably February, March, April, and May. And the whole time Paul Rishty is calling me trying to get me back in the office.”

The phone calls weren’t enough to get AJ to get back in the office full-time, but then AJ got an invitation he couldn’t refuse, because he had no other choice.

“I get an email and a scheduled meeting on my Outlook calendar with the head of my team, Jason Greif. And I was like, “Oh sh*t, that’s not good. I have it go in, the meeting is in his office.” So I come to work and head to Jason’s office. Jason essentially rips me a new one and calls me out on all of my stuff and has this really, really hard conversation with me and tells me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear. He basically says, “Listen man, if you don’t turn it around, you’re wasting talent. You’re wasting your time and you’re wasting our time and you’re going to be a wasted talent. You have a lot of potential, but you’re wasting it.” The words he used were not exactly that kind,” laughs AJ. “But that was a turning point for me.”

“I left Jason’s office that day after our conversation, it was pretty brutal and I felt pretty bad. And so I left that day and I ended up, I’ll never forget this, on the back patio of my house I was actually renting at that time from my dad. It was another super pivotal moment for me that day – talking to my dad – asking him for advice as I’ve done throughout my life and still do so today.”

“My dad says to me, “Hey, listen, is this a good career? Do you like these people? Do you think they care about you? Could you see an opportunity here? Do you see growth? Do you see financial success? And I just said, “Yeah, I really do.” And he said, “All right, well I think you should go back in and I think you should give it 90 days. And I think you should work as hard as you possibly can and harder than you have before and give it everything you got for 90 days, see what it’s like and see what happens.” And that’s what I did. That was probably in June. So, June, July, August, September, October, I did that for five months. And I started writing more business than I ever had before. I ended up recruiting one of my best friends at the time, Josh Oldham and then they promoted me to a Field Training Agent on November 1st of that year as well. And basically, since that moment, I have probably been working six days a week, 70 plus hours for eight years now.”

From taking it easy to taking it seriously. And seriously enough to not only recruit his good friend Josh, but also recruiting other close friends like, Jared Winsey, Elliott Leniton and AJ’s cousin, Nick Barnett. “Getting to work with my friends and some family and getting to grow this business with them, see them grow and prosper professionally and also see how that affects their personal lives, their families and children, and seeing it all first-hand, it’s amazing for me and one of the greatest things I get to do,” says AJ.

Then there’s the leadership AJ says he has been privileged to learn from, which makes all the difference in the world. There’s nothing like being under the tutelage of others you admire and respect, because AJ says they too live the three C’s.

“The ability to partner and work with great leaders like: Seth Groff, Chad Douglas, Parita Patel, Brian Fuller and Max Willett; working with them from the time they were agents and became leaders and how much I’ve learned from them how they’ve taught me, pushed me and challenged me, and hopefully I’ve done the same for them, is truly rewarding. It’s an awesome experience for me seeing what they have done professionally and what they do for other people, it really motivates me,” says AJ.

AJ says his other great motivation comes from his wife Ashley. The two met some years ago when AJ walked into a bar and saw Ashley with a friend he knew from high school. He went up and talked to them and asked them if he could buy them a shot.

“Ashley said she was the designated driver, but I ordered three lemon drops anyway, one for me and both of them. And I told Ashley, “You’re not the designated driver anymore.” That was the beginning of a new relationship. “No one else has ever bought her a shot again,” laughs AJ.

AJ took his shot and he says it’s worked out tremendously. Ashley ended up going to law school and has since been named managing partner in her law firm, all while also being a new mom and about to double the fun with the couple’s next baby on the way.

“Ashley’s passion for what she does and for being a mother and being a spouse, I mean, she’s insane, in a great way,” says AJ. “It’s just her discipline level. She’s nine months pregnant and she was in court today and she was up at five o’clock in the morning to work out. And she’s the managing partner in her law firm. It’s just crazy.”

Crazy is AJ’s work ethic as well and he’s proud of it. He’s crazy about his three C’s: Consistency, Coachability and Character and he says he’s used all of them to drive one of his greatest accomplishments at USHA – growth. Being a number one builder in the company and experiencing significant growth – by showing others they are significant to him too – because everyone matters. It’s a journey AJ says he’s proud of and even more proud to have others join him.

“I feel that these paths have just opened up for me in my life,” says AJ. “Anything is truly possible. I never thought that I would be a Regional Sales Leader, or have the privilege to lead a team, or to be a father and a husband and be able to impact our community with this great company. I believe, anything, truly anything is possible. And I know that that’s kind of a cliche, but I truly feel that way. I never thought of going this far.”

“Years ago my dreams didn’t go this far and I don’t know why. They just didn’t. I’m going to continue learning from every single person around me and be adaptable and be coachable and be a good person. You’ll win if you do. I am. Good things will happen if you do this. You will weather whatever storm or whatever issue that you run into, whether it’s spiritual, emotional, physical, financial or in your relationship, or whatever it may be, if you always stay true to a higher place of moral character.”

“I’m never going to give up. I’m never going to back down. You can always learn from your mistakes and learn from the people around you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and convey that feeling and seek out other people to help and then you can truly have anything you want. You can go far beyond what you’re dreaming. Anyone can go beyond where their life has taken them so far because I’m proof that it is possible. I think anything is possible if you just keep showing up.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky

Here’s a question that might seem off-topic for a business story, but stick with me, and it will all become clear. Have you ever paid close attention to the sports of shot put and discus? Many people have watched them in the Olympics, but how closely have you studied them? Shot putters and discus throwers need a combination of strength, speed, balance, agility, and explosive power to be successful.

And so, there you have it, the magic equation to a successful career in sales. 🙂

The strength and courage to begin. The speed to go from one task to another or to get to that new lead before the next person does. The right balance of a lot of hard work, long hours, and free time. The agility to wear all the hats necessary for your business, from prospecting to selling to servicing. The explosive power needed each day to keep going at the highest level.

Maybe that’s why Daniel Mead experienced such a fast start at USHEALTH Advisors. Since high school, he’s been an expert in those two sports. Push that shot as far as it will go, and throw that discus flat and true. Launch yourself into sales and include all the extraordinary traits already mentioned.

Push, throw, repeat.

Daniel Mead

In only 14 months, between November 2023 and the writing of this story (January 2025), Daniel has produced more than $3 million in individual insurance sales at USHA. That’s called going above and beyond. Athletic prowess and smarts transitioned into business acumen with grit and determination.

Strength, speed, balance, agility, and explosive power. Daniel has it all. He’s been on a record-setting pace at USHA and credits so much of it to simply being part of a tribe, rather than a lone wolf.

For Daniel, being part of a group means being part of something special.

Mind you, Daniel has always been able to make it on his own. Describing himself as a life-long learner, through trial and error, Daniel changed paths, changed states, and changed career trajectories. It worked well, but it was always work. Daniel was a solo entrepreneur on an island, making waves, but soon realizing he wanted to be part of something more.

A lot more.

Daniel grew up on the New Jersey shore, with his parents, who have been married for more than three decades now, and a sister, five years older than he.

For most of his life and even into his junior year in college at Cornell University, Daniel believed he wanted to be a doctor. Then, after an internship experience he didn’t enjoy, Daniel changed his mind. So late in the college game, he had to reboot, pivot and redesign his goals. He graduated from Cornell with a degree in biology, as well as a love for teaching. First and foremost he wanted to be an educator, so he started tutoring, as well as continuing to explore the world of science.

“I actually got a clinical research job at the University of South Florida,” says Daniel. “So I moved down south to Tampa. While working the clinical research job, I was still doing tutoring on the side and I started doing online tutoring for biology, chemistry, physics, anything science related. I just loved teaching it. It was just very therapeutic and easy for me. And people, for whatever reason, they loved learning from me. So I kept doing that and that’s where I got the bulk of my income, because typically if you do well, you get referrals.”

“I soon gave up the clinical research and I was tutoring literally 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for five months straight. I wasn’t hanging out with anybody, wasn’t doing anything else. And it was great. But it was getting to the point where I would get to my fifth student of the day and I would literally be half asleep and they’re like, “Do you want to reschedule in a couple of days?” Because I wouldn’t be able to comprehend what they’re saying. I realized I had to pull it back a little bit, but that’s kind of how my post-college life went for the first year out of college.”

To lighten his tutoring load, Daniel decided he would need to delegate and expand.

“I got a couple of tutors under me and we started coordinating clients,” says Daniel. “And that’s when I started getting a taste of the business life and having people work for you. And I’m going to be honest with you, it was a very interesting thing and it’s something I was definitely curious to learn more about. I never really took a business class. I just knew that I liked working hard and I liked seeing the direct results of the effort that I put in.”

“The issue for me was I didn’t have a community. I was in my room for 12 hours just teaching. And for me, my personality, I can do the same thing every single day, and it takes a lot for me to get bored. I’m a very routine-oriented person. So this new career in sales, I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it’s very manageable for me.”

“But with the tutoring I was getting burned out and I pulled back the hours I was working and recognized how important having a community was for me. I thought back to college, I thought back to high school, just how important it was having people around me that supported me. And I thought, “Okay, I can keep doing this tutoring thing, but it’s a very individual experience, and it wasn’t bringing me the fulfillment I needed. So the funny thing is I applied for a sales position to make money, but honestly, I would’ve been content if I maintained my current income. The biggest thing, I just wanted to be around people. I literally just wanted to be around people, that was it. In a weird way, if I kept making multiple six figures, I’d be happy. I didn’t need to make $10 million. I was like, I just want to hang around people and make money.”

“I was earning a good living working mostly by myself, but if there are people that care about me, people who can support me and just friends to go out with on the weekends, that’s the most important thing for me. For a long time I thought it’s really not that important to have a big community, but that was when I already had that lifestyle. And then I voluntarily changed that life after college and I realized the importance of getting back to the group. So that was my number one driving force. You can ask my leaders – they asked why I joined sales. I wanted a community, a group of people to rely on and ultimately to rely on me as well.”

“We are not made to live alone. We are all part of a tribe, connected by invisible threads of love and belonging.”  – Anonymous

We all want to be seen, heard, and understood; it’s not easy to do that alone. When you only have the opportunity to talk to yourself and only be around you, it’s hard to get out of your own way. We’re all part of a social tribe, and need others to fuel us as well. Daniel thought he was different, but soon learned he’s like everyone else. Though once he was aware, he was still scared.

“Honestly, the day I was walking into that office in Tampa, I was terrified’” says Daniel. “For me, I’m pretty good in the confines of what I consider to be my realm of expertise, but when you get me outside of my comfort zone, it takes a lot for me to get comfortable. So I hadn’t been in any situations like this, this was my first interview. I pull up and for the actual group interview, and I was literally shaking. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is overwhelming. Then they walk me through “the pit” in the office, I see all these guys having so much success, having a good time and I’m thinking I’m like a little guppy in a big pond here.”

“But AJ Baker, who was a Division Leader at the time, but is now a Regional Leader, he finished up the pitch and AJ just has a way with words. He’s a cool cat, he’s very chill and I ended up signing on that day. And then honestly, I came in every single day that week just to study for the exam. I didn’t even do any training yet, I didn’t do any dialing. I was just so consumed by the culture of the environment. This was exactly what I was looking for. So that got me hooked from the very beginning. And from then, it was a continuous effort, and I started to see the results of that effort.”

“I have to say though even though I started that November in ’23 I really didn’t capitalize on open enrollment that first year. Frankly, because I didn’t really know what I was doing in the most concise way possible. So I kind of had to find my groove and figure out my footing, and I didn’t understand what prospecting is. I’d never taken an entrepreneurship class. I didn’t understand what margins were. I just dialed, I just called people and I was like, “Okay, all right, I’m getting some traction here and there.” And I think back to my foundation of being a life-long learner and so I started to figure out what worked and what didn’t work very, very quickly – a lot quicker than my peers. But obviously the constant there is effort. Effort is always going to work, but if you apply your efforts towards different avenues and fail forward – and fail quickly – you can see the most optimal way to get the most out of your constant effort.”

Sounds like a scientific equation. And why not, math and science never lie. The magic is in the numbers. And Daniel knows numbers matter.

“I feel like what I fundamentally grasped a lot more than other people is just numbers,” says Daniel. “And if you give yourself more shots at the basket than the guy next to you, even if you have a lower shooting percentage, you’re still going to score more points. So that’s what I understood. I’m like, “Okay, there are almost 400 million people in America. If I get myself in front of more people than the guy next to me, I don’t care if he’s a better closer than me, I’m going to get more deals than him.”

“So that’s what I did. And essentially I just optimized systems. I did more outreach. I started to really understand the importance of investing in my business and the fact that this actually is a business and just making sure to do right by your clients. That’s how you get referrals. Don’t try to pull one over on people and genuinely put them in a better situation than they were prior to getting on the phone with you. It makes it a lot more fulfilling to come in here and know that you’re actually making the world a better place. It’s very important to me.”

What’s also important is to invest in yourself and in your business. Learn from others who have been where you are and are now having the success you want to experience. Everyone has lessons to share, successes and failures.

“I didn’t truly understand the importance of investing into a business until I had a conversation with, Justin Pilloise, he’s now a fellow Field Training Agent, like me. Justin has a team, and they’re doing great. And I sat down with him because during my first open enrollment I saw he wrote over $500,000 in AV. To me, he was like Superman.

“And I’m here beating my head against the wall on the dialer, calling and not getting much traction, and every five minutes, Justin’s dropping another huge policy in the group chat. So, to me, it was like I’ve got to talk to this guy, but I was so nervous to speak to him. I finally built up the courage to talk with him and Justin is such a cool guy. He taught me so much about just understanding how to fundamentally grasp investments in a business. And that’s when my issued average AV, I think went from $20K a week to $55K a week, and it’s been stable there, very consistent. Last week I wrote over $100K in a week, but my production has been stable for a very long time. I know that investment, that true concept that your system is going to work and having belief in your system and your prospecting methods, is probably one of the most important parts of selling – other than, obviously, being a really good communicator. So I just started understanding margins and even if I spent $3000 a week in leads, if I made $6,000 that week, I actually made my $3000 back right? And then I could reinvest it in back into the business.”

We all can use a little help from our friends. Once Daniel learned to reinvest in himself and his business, he created new momentum, now pushing his numbers higher and further – just like he had pushed that shot put or thrown that discus. Daniel knew the value of doing the reps and increasing his strength, in his body or in his business.

“I think it’s that fire,” says Daniel. “You have to find somebody with that fire inside of them to learn from. The reason I went from a scrawny freshman to one of the top five in the state in shot put and discus in the span of four years, is because you’ve got to be someone who has that intensity inside you. It’s going to help with anything competitive, whether it’s athletics, academics, or sales, you can focus on that competition. That’s kind of an intrinsic thing. I’ve always had that – when I do something I’m one of those people who are naturally going to want to gravitate toward the extremes. When I do something, I’m not going to do it and not put my all into it. Same thing with the tutoring I was doing after college. If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it 12 hours a day, seven days a week. I’m not going to do it for three hours here, three hours there. And the same thing with sports too. If some guy’s standing across from me trying to beat me, in the nicest way possible, that’s going to piss me off and that’s going to make me want to push even further and do even more.”

For Daniel, it’s all about the more, in his production as a USHEALTH Advisor, and in how he wants to lead his team, having been promoted to a Field Training Agent. It’s what Daniel has always wanted, to be around other people.

“I’ve never been in a management position once in my life, and so it’s uncharted territory,” says Daniel. “It’s a lot of everything now – making sure everybody’s happy. It’s making sure all my agents are happy, making sure my assistant’s happy, and checking all the boxes and realistically, if everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to do, the team is going to thrive. So it’s definitely shifted a lot more from individual prospecting to more team maintenance. I treat my team more like a family. We’ll go out together. We have a good time together. One of my best agents was an organic recruit I brought on that I met in Tampa, while I was still doing the tutoring, and he’s awesome. I think he’s in his 8th week and already over $500K AV, so he’s doing phenomenal, I’m super proud of him. I think the best way to grow a team, from what I’ve seen thus far – you have to get a bunch of people who already trust you and then trust the process. If there’s an innate connection there, then you have an opportunity to strengthen it. And I believe from there you can grow something super special.”

“I’m excited to introduce people to this opportunity because when you bet on yourself in life and you truly have confidence in who you are and what you can accomplish, you’re never going to lose. So essentially, we have to find people like that. People who are willing to bet on themselves, people who get goosebumps doing that. And that’s a very specific type of person. It’s a very small percentage of the American population. So especially in a sales environment, and focusing on 100-percent commission, for most people, that scares the ever-loving you-know-what out of them. You’ve got to find the people who, get very excited to have this chance – and they understand what the opportunity actually holds and how you can capitalize on it. I think, especially going into leadership, you can change somebody’s life using this vehicle called USHEALTH Advisors.”

“And I think that is something special because try finding an opportunity like this anywhere else, where anybody can succeed with no prior education. Even the Ivy league schooling I received was not really necessary for this job, but I learned so many lessons, which allowed me to excel here. There are so many different things that you can do and so many lives you can change once you give the right person this opportunity, and at least lately, that’s what’s been bringing me a lot of fulfillment, and a lot of joy.”

Helping Other People Everyday. The opportunity to work, to give, and to serve. It’s at the core of leadership and the core of what Daniel was looking for when he joined USHA in late 2023, a place to call home, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other people focused on a common mission, common goals, and all who share common values.

It’s what you might call community. And for Daniel, especially, Community Matters.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky