“Decide what to do with your life. Decide to do what you love.” – Marc Allen, The Millionaire Course
For Adam Winter, the decision of what to do with his life was not an easy one. There were many stops along the way and too many opportunities that didn’t turn out the way he hoped. That’s par for the course for many people. From job to job to job – searching for a place to call home.
The road can be a long one. For Adam, the road seemed impossible, in fact, it was so tough, it made him want to hit the streets. Not only hit the streets, but literally sit in the middle of one, all alone.
It was just Adam, a table and a sign along the highway in Boca Raton, Florida that read: College Graduate Needs a Job.
“I was a graduate and I needed work,” says Adam. “I had resumes attached to the table and I sat there most of the day. I did it two to three times, then a TV news station came along and filmed it. I actually got offered a job, but I never started it.”
In fact, Adam started lots of jobs. For too many people that’s a three-letter word that provides little security, inspiration or a feeling of appreciation.
Adam wanted more, and he kept searching. From the hospitality industry to online marketing, to pharmaceuticals, to recruiting. Each time either Adam wanted out, or the employer showed him the door. In 2016, another unexpected exit was the last straw.
“I went into travel nursing recruiting,” says Adam. “I was there for a year-and-a-half and then, without warning, they randomly let me go for no reason.”
The timing couldn’t be worse for Adam and his wife Crystal. Then again, is there ever a good time to be told you’re unemployed? Adam and Crystal were well on their way to welcoming a new life into the world, another mouth to feed and little income to do it.
“When the recruiting business let me go my wife was about three months pregnant,” says Adam. “She was working as a teacher, not earning much and now I had no work. Then someone from USHEALTH Advisors tried recruiting me. I saw an ad online and that’s when someone from the West Palm, Florida office contacted me. I told her, ‘I’m not interested, it’s 100% commission, I have to pay for my licensing and my wife is three months pregnant, besides the office is more than an hour from my home.’ The woman informed me there was a Fort Lauderdale office. I still told her, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ She told me she thought I would be right for this position and showed me some weekly paychecks of people earning from $1500 to $4000-a-week. I said I’m still not interested, I need money now. She said she’d send me an e-mail with a link to a webinar and I said, ok, but with no expectation of ever looking at it.”
So Adam got back to work – sending out resumes. Instead of a table in the middle of the street, now it was online. With nothing coming in and nothing he wanted to do – he decided to take a peek at the USHEALTH webinar link.
“When I watched it what caught my eye was the product portfolio and the pay structure,” says Adam. “Then I went to Linkedin and searched USHEALTH, Fort Lauderdale. I found Justin Brain, (now Adam’s Satellite Division Leader), and saw that he and I had a number of mutual friends. Justin had been at USHA for about six months. I gave him a call and we had about a 15-to-20 minute phone conversation and he told me everything I heard was true. ‘We’re helping a lot of people and making money doing it, it’s a great feeling,’ Justin told me. “He said he had sold his transport company and had been making over six-figures before he came to USHA, now it was so much better. I told Justin I’d call him back if I wanted to do this.”
“Then I went on Facebook, searched USHEALTH and found Alvin Bordeau. Alvin is now my Field Sales Leader. I hadn’t spoken to him in a few years, but I knew him from the time I worked in pharmaceuticals. I messaged Alvin and he said call me. We spoke and he told me the same thing Justin had, they were helping a ton of people and making a ton of money doing it. I decided to see it for myself so I went to Garrett Laughlin’s office, (now Adam’s Division Leader), and everything felt legit. I saw people working hard and their paychecks of $2000 to $3000 in a single week. After I witnessed all of this I went back and told my wife I want to join USHEALTH Advisors.”
Adam knew it would not be easy. “I knew there were outside expenses,” he said. “I had to pay some money to contract, for the study course to get my health and life license, and then to get my state license. My wife was teaching at the time and barely making any money, she’s three months pregnant, we had no savings, and to do this, to make this happen, I was actually borrowing money from my mom and my in-laws. But I told myself I cannot fail at this, this is my time to shine. If these people are making this happen, then I can too. I did the study course in a week, passed the licensing exam and then I started working for USHEALTH.”
No risk, no rewards. But the way to get there requires hard work.
It was October of 2016 when Adam joined USHA. By 2017, Adam’s first full year with the company, he produced one-million-dollars in sales in a single year. By the next year, Adam was promoted to a Field Training Agent. Currently, his team is sitting at the top of the charts.
“My goal is to finish as the number one FTA team in the country and to personally hit the $5 million lifetime mark as a personal producer.
But Adam knows the path to the top is paved, slowly, with the stones of an incredible work ethic. It’s something Adam learned from one of the most important women in his life, his mom.
“My mom sacrificed a lot to make sure I had a great childhood,” Adam says. “It was tough for us. My dad passed away when I was ten. At an early age, I quickly came to realize I was the man of the house. My mom was never in danger, but she was the only person I had left. Living as an only child with my mom, I counted on her and she counted on me. It wasn’t easy growing up with a single mom. She didn’t always have the best job, but she kept a roof over my head and worked hard to get me into the best schools. She worked overtime and before I went to high school she earned enough for us to move to another city so I could go to a better high school.”
“I talk to my mom every day. I call her every night on my drive home from work, just to say hi and to listen to her about her day. There isn’t always a lot to talk about, but at the end of the conversation, we say, ‘I love you,’ that’s what really matters. We only have one mom.”
Love, serve, care… work.
It’s built into the very fabric of a successful business and Adam has developed himself and his team following in his mom’s footsteps – putting in the work. But at first, even his mom questioned Adam’s decision to join USHEALTH Advisors.
“My mom, Crystal’s parents and even some of my friends, when I said this is 100% commission, they asked if I knew what I was doing. I contradicted them and said if others can make this happen, with what I’ve seen and the people I’ve seen doing this… if they can so can I. That’s why I worked those long hours the first four months to learn the business. I was working 8 am to 10 pm, to get myself used to the business, what to say and how to say it. I didn’t get paid the first three weeks, then I got paid nicely, then I didn’t, then I got paid again, kind of like a rollercoaster. But after those first few months, everything clicked, and I have never looked back on my decision to join USHA.”
It’s like anything else in life. No one is great at something until they learn the process and put in the time – and that’s what Adam preaches to his new agents – embrace the suck.
“The most important thing to bring to the table is mindset and attitude, they’ve just got to be willing to learn, listen and apply the knowledge,” says Adam. “The first few months, this is not a 40-hour workweek. Put in the hours and be coachable. We do weekend business as well, you should learn to work at least parts of seven days.”
The gap between your desires and your dreams can be filled by only one thing, massive action. Because of the work Adam has invested and continues to invest, the payoffs have been tremendous.
“Life is amazing,” says Adam. “I work a lot in this career, but I can’t imagine where we are now, compared to when I first started – with no income, my wife still working as a teacher, no money in our savings and borrowing just to get this thing off the ground. It wasn’t easy to swallow my pride and to borrow money from my mom and in-laws to do this, but nearly four years later, it’s the best thing that has happened to us. Literally, after my first daughter was born, I was able to financially sustain us and let my wife become a stay-at-home mom. And from there we knew we wanted more children, so we bought a bigger house. In a two-year span, I was able to allow my wife to leave her job and put money back into our savings.”
The couple now have two children, 3-year-old Ava and 10-month-old Raina.
“It doesn’t matter how you grew up, or what hand you were dealt, or what obstacles are in front of you,” he says. “If you just never give up, you will get where you want to be in life. I never had the luxury of having a lot of money or being able to spend freely. It’s not about the money though, it’s about lifestyle and freedom. Growing up seeing my mom struggle, making sacrifices for me, I don’t want my family to have to do the same. I want to make sure I can provide for them and give them whatever they deserve.”
It was a long road, and a lot of job jumping to get here, but Adam and Crystal are happy they made the journey. Now, it’s time to make sure others know they too can do the same – and instead of just working a job – they can build a career and an abundant life here.
They know USHEALTH Advisors is a place to call home.
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky
