“You can always do more than you think you can.” – Coach John Wooden
Doing the most he possibly can. Being the most he possibly can. Giving the most he possibly can.
Meet Carlos Marrero.
In less than two years at USHEALTH Advisors by doing, being, and serving Carlos has issued nearly $3.5 million in personal insurance policies. Carlos racked up $2.2 million in sales last year alone and is already way over $1 million in issued business for 2024.
For those who think it’s luck or special gifts, or different leads or anything else than blood, sweat and tears, think again.
Just consider a day-in-the-life of Carlos Marrero.
“I wake up usually at 6:30 in the morning,” says Carlos. “For some reason, even though I’m not that tired, I always just snooze the alarm clock, even though I don’t really go back to sleep. I just lay in my bed thinking and then the alarm clock rings again. I get up, get ready, all that stuff. Then I’m usually trying to leave my house by 6:55 am. So it takes about 20 minutes to get ready, and then I drive to work. I get to the office and the first thing I do is fill up my water container. You’ve got to drink water, at least a gallon a day. Very important. I recommend more than a gallon, but at least a gallon. Then I’ll drink some energy drinks and get prepared.”
“Then I’m at my desk, everything logged in, ready to go by 7:30 am, waiting for a lead to come in. Soon as eight o’clock hits, I’m making dials. I’m literally working from the moment the dialer starts till about 10 or 10 30 at night. After that, I go to the gym. So I work out, or play pickleball till usually like 12 am, then come home, shower, eat something if I’m hungry. I’m laying in bed by 12:45 am. I usually give myself a target goal of going to bed before 1:30 am so I can get at least five hours of sleep.”
That’s a day!
Nineteen hours of focused effort, between work and working on himself, Carlos is carving out a life he knows he can be proud of and he’s all in at USHA, the only way to be if you want to go all the way.
“I am infatuated with doing this job,” says Carlos. “It’s so much fun. Why would you not be infatuated? We get to help people and teach people things they didn’t know. Some people don’t know anything about health insurance, and after they have a conversation with you, even if they don’t buy anything they’re 1000% going to be better educated for the future. And that’s ultimately what you want, if you’re in it for the right reasons.”
And now Carlos has all the reasons in the world to love what he does, he’s proud to have taken a risk and gone all in on a career in commission sales that offers no base, but in return, has no ceiling. You can do, be, give, and earn as much as you like. The opposite of where he came from before USHA.
“I was working at State Farm. I was an office manager and it was a cushy job,” says Carlos. “I was making $85,000 a year, had a top office in the state of Florida, but I kind of wanted more for myself. I was a little bit capped where I was so I took a leap of faith and left a consistent job I had been doing for eight years and entered into something different to see if I could better my life and accomplish more.”
“And so I left eight years worth of rapport behind me that I had built with State Farm to come here on a whim. I made the decision in a month. Just something came across me. I just thought I would try it. My family, they didn’t trust it, they didn’t believe in it. They gave me a hard time about it, but it was so worth it in the end to me. And now my whole family is proud and they’re happy. I did a training with a couple hundred people and they were so proud of me.”
Pride, acceptance, feeling valued and appreciated. We all want that as humans and during our conversation for this story, Carlos had the realization that leaving his prior company wasn’t just about the income, or being capped in his earnings, but more about what everyone craves, praise and recognition. When that is lacking, people start looking. Money is an easy target to talk about when appreciation, praise and respect are in short supply.
When you don’t feel you matter, you start looking for more.
“Wow, looking back, it’s so interesting when you see it all this way,” says Carlos. “I never looked at it from that perspective, but that was one of the biggest determining factors. If there was a little bit more respect there and a little bit more love at my former job, who knows if I swallow that pill and allow it to be what it is and never leave?”
Carlos says it’s the opposite at USHA, where he feels like he matters and his efforts are appreciated. It’s an internal desire that also stems from his upbringing. With an older sister and younger brother, Carlos is the middle child and admits he’s a “mama’s boy”.” There’s a good reason for that, because Carlos says his mother always gives him exactly what he needs the most.
“She is unconditional love, no matter what,” says Carlos. My mom could be mad at you and no matter what it is you do to this woman, afterward, she’ll still love you. She’s very kind. She’s one of the sweetest people I know. She fosters cats in her backyard just because they come in there and she feels bad. She’s such a kind soul, and she taught me all the family values. My mom is Mexican, so their family values are very strong. I just grew up that way. Just being around my Mexican family, I’m really close with my grandma. I’m really close with my immediate family. For better or for worse, we tell each other absolutely everything.”
“My dad is Cuban, so there are strong family ties there as well. My parents divorced when I was about 10 or 11 years old and it was rocky as first. I grew up mostly with my mom, seeing my dad every weekend or every other weekend, and was kind of was a reckless child. I was definitely anti parents. I didn’t listen to anything that they told me. I was always hardheaded and would just think or say, “I’ll do it on my own. I’ll figure it out on my own.” Which led me to lose a lot of jobs and not give forth my best effort. I was kind of arrogant in a way. I always felt like I could get it done myself. I can figure it out. And I never figured it out. So it took me a long time to actually start listening to people and taking constructive criticism. But now I’m very in tune with my family. I grew up with strong family values and I carry that to this day.”
Yet, it was Carlos’s intrinsic, “I’ll do this myself attitude,” that almost made him a non-starter at USHEALTH Advisors. He had to learn that re-inventing the wheel was a big mistake.
“I know my first weeks here at USHA, it was rough, very, very rough,” says Carlos. “I was coming from being a top salesperson at State Farm into a place like this where I assumed my work ethic would translate exactly the same, and that was my mistake, not being open-minded. So I struggled. I didn’t sell a deal for two months, and I know I got on Alex Deleon’s nerves, (Carlos’ Field Sales Leader). I would not listen to his advice. I would try to do it my own way instead of doing what he told me. So it was a pretty rough start, but once I figured it out, it all made sense. Alex taught me everything. And then I got really good and ended up number one in production in the region last year.”
After being promoted to Field Training Agent at USHA, Carlos has taken the hard lessons he learned at the beginning of his career and shares his scars with others joining his team.
“I see my mistakes happening now with so many new people we have here at USHEALTH Advisors,” says Carlos. “So when I get a new agent, I tell ’em, listen, “I was the guy who tried to reinvent the wheel and it didn’t work. When I chose to listen to my leaders is when I became successful. So listen to everything that I’m telling you, that way you guys can be successful as well.”
“The biggest advice I always tell people is you have to be coachable. You have to be positive every day, and you can’t look at the clock when you’re here. Those are the biggest things, because the moment you start looking at the clock, then you’re like, okay, now you’ve put in your mind, I’m leaving at this time. I’m shutting off everything at this time rather than working until the job is done, you’re only working until the time is complete.”
With this mindset, Carlos says he tries to lead by example.
“I always work until I feel like I’ve done enough, not when the time is up, because you can always do more. But sometimes I’ll say, you know what? I got a couple of sales. I’m okay with how today ended. I put enough dials in, I’ve had enough conversations. But if I’ve had a day where I didn’t have enough conversations, I’ll probably stay an extra 15 to 20 minutes to see if I can get someone else on the phone to have a conversation, to make myself feel better before I get out of the office.”
And so how does Carlos make himself feel better out of the office? It can’t be all work and no play. But Carlos lives by the philosophy shared by his Division Leader, Jason Blank, don’t take days off, take time off.
“Sometimes the weekend calls for me to decompress a little, because we work so hard all week and even parts of the weekend, and I’m only sleeping five hours a day during the week. So sometimes on the weekends I’ll just choose to catch up on sleep. But usually on the weekend I will be doing things that I don’t get to do during the week, which would be maybe going to have a drink with some friends, or bowling. People don’t believe me, but I was on the bowling team in high school,” laughs Carlos. “I also love watching movies. I like anime. I grew up watching that. I also love working out, and going out to eat, all the normal stuff. Also my little brother lives with me, so I make sure he’s all good as well.”
And there’s more family to focus on. Carlos’s sister has three children, so there’s one niece and two nephews Carlos says he enjoys spending time with. His sister lives in Maryland, but Carlos says he visits at least three to four times a year and loves spending time with them.
It’s a good life and Carlos has worked to make it that way. He’s all about going above and beyond what others see as normal, those who do just enough, which has led Carlos to excel in his short time here at USHA.
“I would say about me, I just I think I’m a very positive person,” says Carlos. “I think that’s the one thing that people have always said about me, I’m just extremely positive. I’m always glass half full, never half empty. And that’s usually why I can probably be a lot happier than other people because I look at things from a different perspective because life is all about perspective. So as long as you’re looking at things from the right lens, you’ll never truly be depressed or angry or upset because you see the other side of the coin.
Look for the silver lining. There’s always a silver lining. No one gets through life unscathed, so it’s looking for things that light you up inside, and remind you of your worth.
“My sister bought me a calendar quote book,” says Carlos. “It’s a two year calendar. So every day I come in I flip a page and it has a different quote for the day. It always reminds me of something positive.”
And it helps to launch Carlos into another day of helping and serving at USHEALTH Advisors. Where each day he knows he will work until the job is done.
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky
