Keep Moving Forward – Karalynda DeJesus

“You are at once a beating heart and a single heartbeat in the body called humanity.” – Wayne Dyer

To be human means you’re going to have to accept imperfection as you climb your way up the mountain of life. It’s a shared experience. We all must face challenges, setbacks and obstacles and then choose to rise above.

Some of the challenges hit you early and hit your hard, and one of the toughest things to do is to believe it happened for you, not to you. The experiences and the lessons will fuel your fire in life.

Karalynda DeJesus is living proof you can live a tough, early existence and still find a way to excel. Karalynda is now a Field Training Agent with USHEALTH Advisors and in 2024 she produced $1.3 million in individual insurance sales.

But here’s the kicker – Karalynda did it all within only FIVE months. Not a year, five months!

Talk about going all in. But since she was very young, Karalynda has had no choice but to go all in. Sometimes circumstances force your hand, and for Karalynda, from the time she was just a toddler, it was a fight for survival.

“I grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts and I had a pretty tough childhood,” says Karalynda. “Both my parents were addicts. My mom lived in her car when I was two, so I ended up moving in with my grandparents and my grandmother kind of raised me. Then I moved back in with my mom and then moved around, back and forth. I also had to take care of my brother and my sister while they were at a young age, but I was also still young at the time, about 11-years-old. It was pretty sad. But I also have an aunt on my dad’s side, Betsy, my godmother and she was and still is amazing. Betsy changed my life – and was probably the only truly positive influence I had. Without her, I don’t even know where I’d be.”

“But then my mom eventually got clean and sober and has been for a long time now. Our relationship is so much better and she was very supportive during my start at USHA and really helped me overcome any doubt in the beginning.”

From the toughest beginnings can come the sweetest of circumstances and Karalynda is showing everyone it doesn’t matter where you come from, or how tought it might be, anyone, on any day can take the first step and make a new start.

Karalynda hit the ground running at USHA, winning Rookie of the Year in her region and issuing $1 million annual volume in personal individual insurance sales by December 7th, 2024. She’s setting the pace for others.

She’s accomplished all of this without a lot of formal schooling, or at least any schooling Karalynda could muster the energy to give serious attention. Her home life was too much, and her academics were forced to take a back seat.

“Oh, I hated school,” says Karalynda. “I was never there. And sophomore year of high school they told me I had to go to night school. My mom told them absolutely not. So I had to go all year round in order to make up the credits. Junior and senior year, I had to go to summer school. I had to take an extra class in order to graduate high school. And then I did some college. But again, I didn’t really care about it, due to my home life and stuff. Also, when I was in college, my mom was in an abusive relationship, so I had to move out of the house. I had to put myself first at that time. I didn’t really have a choice, I could either sit there in that environment or I could move on, so I did.”

“I mean, I was homeless at one point and I was financially responsible for my sister, my younger sister. I was about 24 years old. We lived in my car. I had to. My sister was about 15 years old, so I had to take her to school every day. I had to go to work. So I guess maneuvering around and simply surviving that was a pretty big challenge that I overcame.”

“I tried to go back to college when I was 26, but I already had two jobs and I was trying to go to school at the same time, so I think I was overextending myself, and I didn’t even know what I wanted to do, so I was like, why am I killing myself trying to accomplish this?

From her late teens until her mid-20’s, Karalynda worked as a bartender/server and then got into banking, working as a part-time teller and then eventually, as only someone who knows how to care for others can do, she showed tenacity and strength to move up and manage her own branch. Karalynda then worked for a recruiting and staffing agency and once again, rose to the top, managing operations for the entire agency.

Remember, it doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. Karalynda has had the wisdom to embrace her personal history and extract from it the lessons and learnings, the strength to go after what she wants and to excel in whatever job she chooses.

But when it comes to simply working a job, sometimes enough is enough.

“I was working remotely on and off in management,” says Karalynda. “I guess in any leadership role, you don’t really have a day off. You have to be available to your team at all times. But I wasn’t getting paid much. So I’m working all these hours. I have no free time. I have to be available 24/7, and I’m only getting paid two grand a week, plus maybe a quarterly bonus IF we meet goals. So I was like, you know what? I just want something else that I just work 9 to 5. It’s funny now that I’m at USHEALTH Advisors and thought I wanted to only work 9 to 5′” she laughs. “I thought back then I want to make a $100,000, and then I want benefits and paid time off. So I got on a job search website and started looking around. I saw a posting for an account manager, or something like that, I don’t even remember, but I figured I’d go in and learn more.”

“I came in, and spoke with Max Willett and Austin Baker, and I heard about the opportunity here,” says Karalynda. “I’ve always been a hard worker, obviously always been a top performer. Then I heard Austin Baker’s story about not having a great upbringing, like mine. And I thought, well, if he can do this then I can do this. So I signed up for all my state licensing paperwork right then and there that night. But then they had me come again and I still was kind of unsure because I didn’t really know if I could be self-employed, since that’s not really what I came in here wanting to do. I was looking for the safe job with benefits.”

“And I was kind going back and forth, was I believing in myself or not. Can I really do something that’s one-hundred percent commission based? But then I thought, I don’t have anything to lose. And I went in thinking failure is not an option, there’s no plan B. I mean, you are kind of forced to make it happen. So I did. It was the greatest decision ever. They had me come into a sales meeting and then, after, while still in the parking lot, I called the owner of the agency where I was working and said, “Yeah, I’m sorry I have to leave. Here’s my two-week notice.”

An end and a new beginning. But like anything new, you’ve got to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run. Karalynda had a lot to learn, but she was up to the task.

“I came in and just listened to whatever other agents and leaders were saying as they presented to clients,” says Karalynda. “The training here and the onboarding experience is laid out well. The leaders do a really good job of giving you a blueprint, a lot on product knowledge, a lot on competition knowledge. So I asked a lot of questions. And I mean I asked a lot of questions. I really did trust in my leadership and whatever they told me to do, I did. I was a sponge. I shadowed people. If I saw someone was on a pitch, I went up behind them and I listened and took notes. If I saw a clear-to-close with someone, like a leader trying to clear an agent to close their own sales, I went up and I started listening to what feedback the leader was giving that agent. I shadowed as many people as I could.”

Watch, listen, study, and then, as you learn, try and emulate. It’s a simple formula, and being a quick student, Karalynda was off to the races. That was July of 2024, and the year was half-over, but seeing the glass as half-full, there was still half-a-year to go. For Karalynda every day mattered.

It’s not over til it’s over.

“Once I was cleared to close, I got my first new business issued the next day, that was in early August,” says Karalynda. “Then I hit my $20K milestone in week one, my $65K milestone in week two, the $100K milestone by week three, $150K by week four, $250K by week five, and so on.”

The drive, the consistency, the will, and some blind faith are a recipe for success. Karalynda followed that recipe and, in such a short time, has already created a new life for her and her family.

“I would say my biggest attribute is my work ethic,” says Karalynda. “I thrive in a competitive field. I’m looking around the office and I see there are other people still here into the evening, and I’m like, well, if they’re here, I should still be here. You look around and your leadership is still here at night, so it’s kind of hard to leave. Also, it’s hard to leave the office on any given day when you haven’t hit your goals yet. I’m still getting started in this career. So I feel like why would I leave? I have to stay. I need to do as much as I possibly can to achieve what it is that I want to achieve for myself. I mean, this time last year, I didn’t even know I had no goals. I never even let myself dream.”

That’s a powerful piece of introspection – I never let myself dream. Now, Karalynda is making her dreams come true.


“All I wanted was peace, a peaceful, calm life, which I had finally had by moving to Florida, but I was still broke,” says Karalynda. “In my mind, I told myself, I’m okay. My bills are paid on time and I have a few hundred bucks left over. That’s fine. I figured it’ll change eventually, but right now it is what it is. But I was kind of comparing that to my worst case scenario, and I didn’t allow myself to dream big at all. And now, the possibilities are endless. I can do whatever I want. I can accomplish whatever I put my mind to.”

“Now I see that since these goals are attainable, that I can, if I just keep my foot on the gas, I can do it. I can have the nice house, I can have investment properties. I can invest. When people talked about donating to charity, I used to think, “I wish I had money that I could give away.” And now I do it all the time; it’s not a big deal. Whenever they ask me to donate to charity, I say, here you go.”

Life’s about love, and living is giving. Karalynda says she also sees one of the keys to her fast start at USHEALTH Advisors is giving back to her clients – by helping them to feel seen, heard, and understood.

“I think the people I speak with can tell I am not trying to put them in just any health product,” says Karalynda. “I ask them a lot of questions. I actively listen. So my talent or my skill is I think I’m really good at mirroring people. I can do this because of my upbringing; growing up with all types of people. I think that I do a really good job at mirroring my clients – if they’re calm and soft-spoken so am I. If they’re more assertive, so am I. If they’re a lot more casual, so am I. But I’m also completely transparent, I think that I’m honest almost to a fault. I don’t tell my clients what to do, and I think that they can tell that. And also, I don’t force anything if. If they say, “Yeah, we want to wait on it.” I say, “Okay, no problem. I’ll email this over to you and I’ll touch base with you later on. And we’ll just kind of go from there.” Sometimes they even call me back first.”

Now, there’s no going back to the life she led before. In a very, very short time, it has been and continues to be a great ride for Karalynda. The lessons she’s learned in these early months are many.

“No one’s going to hand you anything,” says Karalynda. “You have to go out and get it. You have to take initiative, and you can either choose to be a victim or you can make it happen for yourself. I mean, those are your only two options. So it’s a choice that eventually you have to make. Like is this what I want, or can I change this? I don’t think I ever fell victim to anything. I’ve handled what I needed to handle and I think I always wanted more. I’ve always worked hard. I knew what I was doing was not what I wanted, or how to live my life. So I made a change. I never settled.”

And now, with a promotion into leadership Karlalynda has the power in her hands to change other lives. Even though it was something she resisted, once she saw the beacon of light she could bring for others, Karalynda was all in.

“As an agent I was able to solely focus on my own production,” says Karalynda. “I had been in management for so long at other jobs, I had no desire to get in leadership at all. When they brought this opportunity to me to step up and become a Field Training Agent, I said, “Absolutely not.” I said, “No, I don’t want to even deal with that ever again in my life. I just want to focus on myself for once.”

“But the more I talked with my leaders, I realized, “You know what? Yeah, they’re right.” They told me, this time next year, you’re going to wish that you did step up and become a leader. They told me you’re going to struggle to find a purpose doing the same thing over and over every day. I said, “You know what, that’s true because I’m always looking for something else to do.” And it is probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my career; because now all these brand new agents that started just how I started – hungry and ready to change their lives – I’m ready to help them too. I’m able to have a huge impact on them and their success, and it’s hard not to get emotional every single day, how fulfilling it is. It’s only been a short amount of time, but already I feel like this is the best decision I ever made.”

Drop the mic.

There’s nothing like servant leadership. Now, living a life immersed in the culture of HOPE (Helping Other People Everyday) at USHA, Karalynda, is learning how to create a lasting impact and a legacy. You can’t take anything with you when you’re gone, so why not do all you can with all you have been given?

Karalynda’s philosophy and her goals are simple now, and simplicity helps bring clarity and vision.

“No matter what’s going on, if you keep pushing forward and stay positive, good things will happen,” says Karalynda. “You’ll make good things happen. If you maintain the mindset that, even if you don’t know if you can see that light at the end of the tunnel, if you keep pushing forward, you’ll only fail if you give up.”

It’s proof anyone can create the happiest outcomes from the toughest of beginnings. Never forget your struggle is your gift the world will fall in love with.

“Remain positive and keep working hard,” says Karalynda. “Don’t take no for an answer; ignore the noise and focus on yourself. Don’t focus on yourself in a selfish way, but focus on what you need to focus on and prioritize what’s important and what’s not. Then it all becomes clear. You’ve got to keep moving forward.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsk

Your Why Matters – Tanner McKinley

If not now, then when? If not you, then who?

Tanner McKinley has stepped up to answer these questions this year and is on his way to an amazing accomplishment.

There is no need to bury the lead in this case; Tanner is in the final days of wrapping up a herculean effort with USHEALTH Advisors. In only his second year with the company, he is poised to finish as the #1 personally producing insurance agent in the company, to the tune of $3.85 million in individual sales!

That’s one application at a time over 365 days, a ton of calls, texts, late hours, six to seven days a week of incredibly tough work. A relentless schedule. A disciplined life that serves as an example for many. Yet, as proud as Tanner is of his accomplishment and dedication to the goal, he still has that as his second greatest challenge in life so far.

What’s number one? Well, his name is Mason.

“I would say probably being a father, to be honest with you,” says Tanner. “I would say that’s probably been my biggest challenge as far as adapting to that role and being there for my son and my family. So that’s probably the one that comes to mind, I think it’s just something that was newer to me, a unique challenge. I also wouldn’t say I’ve accomplished being a good dad yet. I’m working on that one.”

Anyone who has a child knows that parenting is always a work in progress, but if Tanner treats the challenge the same way he has his USHA career (which is still in its toddler stage as well), then he will rock fatherhood the exact same way.

After all, if Tanner wants something, he will get it, whether it’s being a good dad or being an incredibly accomplished and caring agent and leader.

“I would say being successful in this career probably locks down the number one spot in life as far as an accomplishment – being able to take myself from absolutely no sales experience, no book of business, no experience in insurance, and within two years chasing down the number one spot in the company. I would say that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve ever been able to accomplish.”

So how did he do it? That’s the question inquiring minds want to know; everybody wants to learn the secret sauce in Tanner’s success.

“I would say, to be honest with you, I started out just so strong this year,” says Tanner, “like sprinting from the beginning of the marathon and just trying to keep pace from quarter one, and then in quarter two, quarter three, I really just grinded it out. I didn’t take any vacations. I just said I was going to come out and hit it hard and I didn’t really have a specific plan for the beginning of the year. I wasn’t like, “Oh, I’m going to go for the number one spot.” That was never really my plan. My plan was that I was going to do the most that I possibly could and I was going to push myself. And if that was good enough, then great. If not, then I knew I was going to leave it all out there because this was probably going to be my heaviest production year I had geared up for. I had a great year last year, my first year as well, finishing top three in the country.”

While it appears Tanner turned himself into a singular sensation in 2024, he didn’t do it alone. Not only did he hit the top spot personally, but as a Field Sales Leader, Tanner still had a team to lead and to help thrive, which he says brought him his biggest sense of pride.

“I think I’m more proud of the team accomplishments than I am the individual ones,” says Tanner. “I think the team success is great because it shows people you can scale, that you can take a business to new heights and see how tall it can grow. I love the fact that the team makes it a replicable business, and I feel like working together as a team is what makes this special, and that’s what probably kept me writing even more business during 2024 – kind of sharing that dream and sharing that vision – that we all collectively, are working towards something as a team. So I really, really love that.”

Reach one, teach one. We all start looking out for ourselves, but when you realize other people need you too, and you can lead them along the way and see other people be successful and change their lives, that’s where the juice is. Tanner’s team is wrapping up 2024 with $14 million in sales, number one in the Caleb Montague Division.

“Yeah, it’s been a good time and we love our little team,” says Tanner. “I think the point that I was really trying to make with this year is that I’m in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I helped open up this branch back in 2022, and you always look at the top producers or the top people in the company – they typically come from other big cities. They come from Nashville, they come from Tampa, and so on. But Chattanooga is new and small and I think I just wanted to prove that it doesn’t matter where you are, or where you’re from. When I started I didn’t really have someone in my office that was writing big numbers. But I wanted to. So, I took the opportunity to pioneer something and I wanted to do it my way, and I did always believe that my ideas would work.”

“And then I finally got into a position where I can implement my own ideas because you have no restrictions on doing that here, as long as you’re doing it the right way. We don’t have a bunch of red tape that we have to cut through here at USHA. It’s similar to my military background. If you want to make your program better in the military, you have to convince 17 people that this is going to be good for them and convince them that it was their idea. It’s similar here at USHEALTH Advisors. If you think that something can work, you can implement it. But I think the main point is that it doesn’t matter what team you come from, it doesn’t matter what background you have. If you come into this opportunity with the right mindset and you’re willing to grow and learn by trial and fire and be excited to fail and make mistakes, then you can raise yourself up and you can build the number one business in the company and change your family’s life.”

Tanner could stop and drop the mic right there. But wait, there’s more. Tanner mentioned the military and his experience there, as well as some special relationships he developed, which have forever changed his outlook on life and what he believes he can glean from it.

Tanner grew up in Lee Summit, Missouri, a couple of minutes from Kansas City. Though he says childhood was good, a move to a different high school left him feeling, as he describes it, “like a loner”. It left Tanner wanting a change and wanting more.

“I wanted to overcome all of this,” says Tanner, “not let it be a crutch or not let it be something that would hold me down, but use it as motivation to fight twice as hard to build a life that I wanted to live. I was trying to get out of town as soon as I could and that’s why I went into the military right at age 18. I was trying to get out of there and do something different.”

“I went to Texas for basic training once I graduated, barely by the skin of my teeth, but then I went into the Air Force and that’s where I started working with dogs and developed that special relationship, working with the canine unit looking for bombs or explosives. That stoked my passion of helping people and it’s something I feel like I’ll never forget.”

“The experience was something that really built me as far as my confidence level and what I was able to do and the people that I had to communicate with. I would speak with high ranking officials constantly and have to learn to communicate with different people from all over the country. I think that’s where I gained a lot of my communication skills. You join the military and there are all these people that come from different walks of life and different backgrounds and even different languages. They throw us together and try to teach us how to all work together. So that was something where I tapped into a lot of those communication skills I could use in the insurance industry. I mean what is it that we do? We speak to people all day.”

There’s learning to communicate, and there’s learning the skill of survival, and facing fear head-on. Working as an explosive dog detector handler in Afghanistan, Tanner faced danger every day. In August of 2021, as Taliban fighters entered the city of Kabul, Tanner was part of the evacuation of the US Embassy there, helping humans and dogs to escape safely.

“I was probably one of the last few dog teams that were in the embassy,” says Tanner. “So after I evacuated most of the dogs, I was one of the last ones to leave Afghanistan. Originally I was going to go to take another position in Iraq, but after Kabul, I was done. I didn’t want to go to another embassy and have the same thing happen to me. My wife Brooke was pretty tired of it as well. She was probably ready for me to go. She’s always supported me no matter what I’ve done, and I’m sure she would’ve had my back, but I was looking to move on at that point.”

Tanner returned to Colorado, where he and Brooke (whom Tanner met while at his first duty station in Wyoming) were living at the time and started looking for work. It wasn’t easy, and Tanner was extremely frustrated.

“I was doing Zoom calls from Colorado and I had a long string of bad interviews and to be honest with you, I was checked out,” says Tanner. “And then I got on this Zoom with Carson Rogers from USHEALTH Advisors, and as he started talking about this opportunity, I was like, “Oh, I might actually have found something here.” I could tell Carson and Caleb Montague were like-minded. I could sense that. And I convinced them to fly me out for training, though I was still skeptical. I thought, “I know I can do this, but I want to come check it out.” Carson actually opened up his home to me for about two weeks and I got to stay with him and work with him every single day. I did very well my first week, not having any experience at all, just confidence on the phone and just wanting to speak with people and help solve their problems.”

But once training ended and left to his own devices, Tanner started to make the same mistakes many new agents do, selling instead of helping.

“My initial approach when I first came to USHEALTH Advisors was being a salesman and selling the products we had. Before my clients were even asking questions, or before I could even ask them questions, I was telling them what product they wanted and that was due to my lack of sales experience. I quickly learned sales is just good communication skills. But that was probably the biggest thing that was holding me back in the beginning.

Obviously, Tanner turned it all around, big time! And now, it’s his goal to bring on people who match his desire to help, to serve, and to work as hard as they possibly can.

“When I bring people into this opportunity, I don’t hire salesmen or saleswomen. I hire good people, and I make them advisors. By doing that I can teach people the approach where you’re educating your client on the entire health insurance market, to truly be an advisor and talk about the different aspects of it.”

Tanner also realized to go big, he couldn’t go it alone, not only by bringing on new agents to his team, but also seeking assistance for his practice.

“I’d say the biggest thing is the approach, and hiring support is the way to scale your business. It’s almost impossible to do a very high level of production six or seven days a week and still spend time with family without creating a business structure where you aren’t doing everything. Sometimes men, with our pride, we have this thing where we want to do everything ourselves. We want to prove that we can do it solo, but in business, you’ve got to check that ego at the door, and there’s nothing wrong with hiring a support position to help you stay on the phone speaking with clients and stay focused. We get compensated to help clients find the best coverage, so the goal is to spend as much time as possible doing just that.”

But before he could scale, Tanner says he had to grind. For any new agent starting out with USHA, here’s the secret… and to share it, we’ll let Tanner roll through how he ran his days early in his career.

“I’m not a morning person. I never am. I never will be, I don’t care. I was military for six years, plus two years overseas. I hated waking up at 3 or 4 AM and I never wanted to do it again. I was always a night owl though, and that is something that I really, really capitalized on here when I started at USHEALTH Advisors. I do believe that the low hanging fruit in this business are late nights. So I would be in the office about 9:00 AM and then I’d be working until at least probably midnight. At 9:00 AM I would be sending out my morning messages, emailing my clients for my appointments later on that day and trying to set up same day appointments. Those are always going to be the best appointments that exist. And then throughout the day, I would be running appointments. I almost always ate my lunch at my desk. Going out to lunch every single day is the stuff that eats away at your productivity.”

“But I think my biggest thing was efficiency. If a client doesn’t pick up the phone, you can do one of two things. You can either go prospect for another and take the effort to make your day more productive, or you can kick your feet up on your desk, watch TikTok and you can wait 30 minutes for your next appointment. And if you’re doing that, it’s going to crush your productivity. So I think that was something where I’m very focused. I can sit in there and I really don’t need a lot of breaks. I might go walk around the office, get a drink of water, maybe throw the football around with the guys for a minute, or whatever it might be. But then, I’m back at it, eat my dinner at six, and then I have my night appointments from six to nine. I think those are the best appointments to run.”

“Still to this day, six to nine PM is where I make most of my sales. Then, I would be up prospecting and calling clients till about midnight. I would shift my time zones so that way I could speak with more people during their prime hours. And I did that for pretty much for the first three to six months.”

So, that’s the secret, there is no secret. Work hard, don’t stop, be tenacious, be efficient, think outside the box, work the hours others are unwilling to work, and stay focused on your goal. And one more lesson, maybe the most important in being an advisor; learn to listen, to communicate, to educate, have compassion and put people in a better position than you found them. For years, during his military experience, Tanner got the rare opportunity to work very closely with dogs, one of God’s greatest teachers, (after all dog is simply God spelled backward). A dog will tell you all you need to learn about life, by showing you the one lesson we as humans should be wise to emulate, unconditional love.

Help, serve… repeat.

Anyone can do what Tanner has accomplished; it’s about belief and a big, bad work ethic.

But work is work, even if it takes up a good portion of the day – there’s still another work in progress. Tanner spoke about this earlier – his family – spending time with his son, Mason, and his wife, Brooke. Tanner wants to be there for his son, watching him grow while at the same time being a strong, supportive, and caring husband to Brooke.

His family is his why.

“It’s always about the why,” says Tanner. “You have to have a strong why. I mean without that why, without that vision, without that purpose, your goals mean nothing. That’s what I always say, goals without a why are just dreams. And you want to have a good why – my why is always going to be my family. It’s going to be my vision. It’s going to be what type of lifestyle I want my family to live, what I want to provide for them. And I just love this opportunity here. When I came into this, my wife was pregnant and we moved across the country to do this. We were living in Colorado. I spent every dime that I had. I had $0 in my bank account and my back was against the wall. So I mean that need to survive, to provide, to give all to my family, that was and still is, my why.”

“And then my son was born and it was cool. I was already doing things here at USHA that are going to benefit my family and my son years down the road. That’s something that is truly special, I was making decisions and I was helping families and these clients are going to be here, be on my books and support my family for 15, or 20 years into the future. That’s how long I want to stick with my clients and plan on sticking with them. I always pick up the phone for them and I think that that’s the reason that they stay with me. I have a really good retention with my clients. No matter how big your book is, you can manage to do that if you set systems in place that help you do it.”

“But my why helps me accomplish all of those things. It gets me up out of bed when I am tired, when I am sick when I don’t feel like making any calls that day, or I have a bad day, or I have a good day, or whatever it is. That’s what keeps me pushing every day, every week, and keeps the consistency to be unwavering. It’s all about the why.”

Being the best of the best is no accident and Tanner McKinley is proving that.

Tanner’s Why Matters.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky

The Right Legacy – Kelly Robertson

Live and give. You can’t take any of it with you, so why not give it away while you’re here?

If you invest in yourself to make you better, to build yourself up for other people, and use the unique power that only you possess, then how can you go wrong?

These questions are easily answered but hard to put into practice because we all fear the greatness inside every one of us. Yet, it exists and can impact the lives of others if we tackle the obstacles head-on and believe in the power we possess.

Kelly Robertson knows this all too well, he had to battle back from living life on the edge, to creating a life to be proud of at USHEALTH Advisors.

“I’ve come through a number of challenges,” says Kelly. “I’d say the biggest challenge I had was figuring out how to create what I’ve created. When I found out we were having our second child, kind of being thrown into it with no plan and then figuring out how to make it work, that was a big challenge. I had my business taken away from me during COVID. I was selling products to restaurants. So going through that phase, living on a loan from the government and then finding no light at the end of the tunnel through the old business – and things getting a lot worse after COVID, especially for restaurants, yeah, I had to pivot. I was at the end of my loan money and that was probably the biggest struggle of my life. I had two kids, a newborn and I a 2-year-old at that time, I owed the government $20,000 from a COVID loan and I had no plan, no career, no savings. I had nothing.”

But Kelly did have a friend, and from a distance, he was watching that friend building something from nothing.

“I went to high school with a guy named Johan Farigua,” says Kelly, “and I was looking at what he was posting on Facebook. Once he started growing his career and business, he did a lot of Facebook marketing. And so, at one point when COVID first happened, and I was facing the biggest hurdle of my life, I reached out to Johan and asked what he was doing.”

“At that time I actually thought I was going to get into real estate. I told Johan, “Hey, I don’t know if this restaurant thing’s going to come back so I wanted to hear what you are doing.” But at the same time I was also talking to another high school friend in Orlando who Johan knew. So Johan listened to me, and then wished me luck. He said, “If it doesn’t work out, you can come back to talk to me some more and look into USHEALTH Advisors.”

“That was a year before I started and it’s the biggest regret everybody always says about this opportunity… not starting earlier. Everything kind of crumbled with the real estate opportunity. And then living on my $20,000 government loan, it was going down fast, I had about a grand left to my name. So I started filling out resumes for sales jobs. I reached out again to Johan and he said, “Just send over your resume and come in for an interview.”

“It seemed a little bit informal, but Johan also made me feel like I needed to be checking out what he was doing. He made it easy for me to come and see him. Keep in mind, my loan money was already running out but because of COVID my rent was in forbearance. I wasn’t having to pay it. My landlord was really good for a while about that, so I was getting comfortable. And then, an old knee injury became a real issue and I had to have major surgery. So as soon as I thought something was going to happen with a new business, I wasn’t able to walk. I wasn’t able to walk for a month and a half. I had a blood clot, and a long healing process, it was very upsetting. And so for my interview, I crutched in, post-surgery to Johan’s gigantic office, a ton of people looking like they were working hard, but also having a great time.”

At the same time, Kelly wasn’t sure he was making a great impression.

“Because of my surgery recovery and COVID and everything else, I had grown a long beard. Never had a beard in my life. I looked like a bum crutching into this place. I couldn’t bend down so Johan had to help plug in my computer. But all around me I could see Johan’s success, how he was helping everyone, and leading this big office. And I understood the USHEALTH Advisor’s mission of HOPE and Johan had this big buy-in with it – and so do I now – centered around helping other people. Whether you are doing it as a leader, helping people create careers and futures for their family, or you’re doing it on an individual basis and you’re helping families, I really can relate to all of it.”

Kelly was ready to take the leap of faith, but the pull of his own young family was weighing on him. How could he commit to taking on a sales position, which would mean long hours away from them, leaving his wife to shoulder most of the burden?

It was a question to ponder, and Kelly got introspective to take what he learned from his past to make the best decision for his present and future. The lessons and learnings in our personal history are there for a reason, as guide posts on what to do… and what not to do.

Kelly’s ultimate decision and why in a moment, but first let’s back track a bit.

Kelly’s history, like so many, is varied. Successful people reach each point in their lives through a great deal of trial and error.

Kelly did it all, from playing baseball for a decade, to being a skateboarder and breaking nearly every bone in his body, to surfing and fishing, and then to feeling the bumps and bruises of being an entrepreneur.

“I could make money doing anything. I felt like I was confident,” says Kelly. “So I was buying boats, selling boats, buying cars, selling cars. And then I had money saved up so that’s when I started an electronic cigarettes store when it was the hot trend. I’ve always tried to be the best or the first at everything I’m doing. I had a buddy doing well in Daytona, Florida with the electronic cigarettes, but there was obviously not a long-term future in that. I saw the trouble coming with regulations and so got into distribution with local restaurants.”

But the hardship during COVID led him to the doorstep of USHEALTH Advisors, and the hard decision on how to make the sacrifices necessary to do it. Kelly credits some great mentorship from an important man in his life to see the light.

“My dad was military,” says Kelly. “So we’re from all over the place. My brother was born in Virginia, my sister was born in Ohio. Growing up, my parents, they were solid and we always followed my dad. So we ended up in Ohio for a time. That was up until about second grade. And then we moved to Florida.”

“My dad, he’s a problem solver. For him, everything is, “I’ll do it myself.” So I take the best of the best from my father, best mentor ever, he got me to where I am. But if I lived the way he lived, I’d be mowing my lawn, versus hiring the lawn guy to mow the lawn so that I can work an extra hour because I’m buying back my time from all the mistakes made. Actually, I wouldn’t call them mistakes, but all the learning foundational steps I took, getting to where I was at the time. And learning so much from my dad, definitely that aggressive approach to solve problems helped me a great deal, I’ve always had that knack to be a problem solver.”

Not just a problem solver, but also a hard worker. Kelly says he’s always realized everything worthwhile takes work and it’s like climbing a rope, one hand at a time.

“I’ve always been a hand-over-fist kind of guy where I learned how to make money,” says Kelly. “I thought I was going to school to find out a way to do it the old-fashioned way, get a bachelors degree, and maybe become an accountant, but I stopped at my Associate’s degree. I knew I didn’t want to be an accountant at that point anymore, but I liked money, which led me there. I knew in that industry I wasn’t going to figure out how to help other people make their money, to help others in that way, and that was a light bulb moment for me.”

Kelly’s desire to help others, including his own family, eventually led him to take the leap of faith and get ready to sign on to join USHA. But then Johan laid out the schedule, not sugarcoating anything in the work effort and the initial sacrifices to make that career a success.

“At first I told Johan I couldn’t do it,” says Kelly. And he said, “Yeah, I know, it’s all good.” He didn’t even push back twice at that. I was like, eight am to eight pm, that’s a lot, I knew how important the kids and my wife were to me. I was living in Orlando and would have to drive the hour to Satellite Beach. And Johan said I know, “That’s why I wanted to tell you the hardest thing first.” I appreciated that, because Johan didn’t tell me only what I wanted to hear.”

But with Kelly’s life experiences, the problem solving genes he inherited from his dad, Kelly’s desire to earn a good living, to no longer suffer from his dwindling government loan, and his innate desire to help others, Kelly took the leap of faith.

He’s never looked back.

Kelly worked the hours he needed to, was able to eventually modify a bit to fit the needs of his young family, even spending hours working from his garage and then stepped up into leadership to teach others how they too could become successful. He credits Johan with his model of leadership.

“Johan is a determined guy,” says Kelly. “That’s very inspiring. So knowing I was going to be following in his footsteps was very assuring for me, very assuring. And my other leader at the time, Michael Latorre, was instrumental in my success. He listened to me make calls, helped me send texts. Early on he solved 99% of the challenges I experienced in this business.”

Challenges, facing and overcoming them are what build character and a successful sales career. To date, Kelly has issued more than $6 million in personal production and his teams have produced more than $15 million in team business. Kelly even introduced one of his siblings to the USHA career.

Then there’s Kelly’s wife, Allie, whom Kelly met nearly a decade ago when she walked by his storefront in Cocoa Beach.

The couple now have their two boys, Kai and Brooks. Brooks was the newborn who came along four years ago, just as Kelly was launching his career at USHA. And they have their dog Kiko. It’s a full life, one Kelly is proud of, not only for his family, but the career and opportunity he loves sharing with others, whether it be an up-and-coming agent or his newest insurance policy holder.

“I mean, this is 100-percent the idea of leaving behind the right legacy” says Kelly. “I love helping people, and solving problems like we do with our USHEALTH products. I’ve created great relationships with people. I’ve helped people through very troubling times with our products and that really invigorates me. So, really the whole approach for me is the buy-in, having it and keeping it and reinventing it, always nurturing it that way. It’s finding challenges, finding ways to help people, and then furthering my success to care for my family and making it so my wife doesn’t have to work. It’s the overall stability and the security USHA gives us. It’s a feeling I’ve never been able to achieve anywhere else. It keeps me going. So it’s hard to describe it any other way, but definitely the long-term stability, because coming from the early part of my story, having things change up on me, as so many people do, it’s really hard to bet on the next five years. But with this type of opportunity, with USHEALTH Advisors, it’s easy to make that bet – and it’s been awesome – really, really awesome.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky

Care About Other People – Devon Perron

“Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Let’s begin with the end in mind. Every business is about one thing: people.

Devon Perron has always focused on people, as well as on what he needs to do for himself to make him the best he can be for other people.

“I feel like I just developed a strong mind over time,” says Devon, “and mindset is a very powerful thing. So, I was always able to push myself and be disciplined to get me anywhere that I’ve wanted to go. Never giving up on myself is a mindset. So I believe having a strong mind and developing that, well then you can do anything if you put your mind to it; it’s always been a big thing for me.”

It’s also been a big thing for USHEALTH Advisors, since every contribution matters at this company and Devon’s contribution has been significant. Since 2018, when he joined USHA, Devon’s individual sales are approaching the $5 million mark, and even more impressive, Devon has led his teams to more than $78 million in production. Currently, Devon serves as a Satellite Division Sales Leader for the company.

Devon is making strides and continues to lead his team daily in his USHA office in Delray Beach, Florida. But the here and now – the present – always finds its roots somewhere in the past. No one finds success; they build it over time. You can’t connect the dots looking forward, only looking back.

Devon knows his history matters.

“One of my biggest challenges in life was having a split family,” says Devon. “Growing up, mom and dad divorced when I was very young, but they did the best for us that they possibly could. I grew up mainly with my mom.”

“I saw my dad every other weekend, so that was tough on him and for me as well. He’d have to drive 30 minutes to an hour sometimes to come pick me up, and then drive me back. As I got older, I got to spend a little bit more time with him because I played sports, and he was my coach in baseball and football. So instead of only seeing him on the weekends, he was also able to hang out with me during the week and coach me in those sports.”

One sport in particular became a big part of Devon’s life. It’s the game that represents the challenges that are most like life, the game of baseball. That game, steeped in failure, teaches its participants where success truly comes from, how to rise above all the adversity, and then look for the silver linings in even the smallest of accomplishments. Every base hit matters. Every pitch matters. Every well-fielded ground ball matters. Every out matters.

“I played pretty much every position in baseball,” says Devon. “I also pitched a little. I loved pitching. I liked being able to always touch the ball and be in charge of it. That’s why I also enjoyed being a catcher; I was in every play. I had a slightly bigger body as a younger kid, so I made for a good catcher. I just hate not doing something. Even at a younger age, I liked being involved in the action. Half the time I can’t sit still.”

Always wanting to be on the move, Devon went on to attend college at the University of Central Florida, graduating with a degree in business administration. As Devon said, he wanted to be doing something, so he went looking for an opportunity to grow in the finance industry or sales. But he couldn’t find anything he liked.

“I worked at Outback Steakhouse as a server, bartender, and manager from 2012 to 2018,” says Devon, “until I got into the health insurance industry. So throughout college I worked at Outback, and did some guest appearances and stuff at bar/clubs and things in downtown Orlando. But right after graduation, I job searched and couldn’t find anything I really liked, then I saw what one of my former bartenders, Jason Blank, was posting on social media.

“I saw Jason post some accolades online with himself and Jesse Fabricant and so I just decided to message Jason on Facebook and ask him, “Hey, what’s going on? What are you doing?” And then I went and checked out the opportunity and once I heard about it I decided to go all in.”

What attracted Devon to the opportunity is the same thing that attracts many people to USHEALTH Advisors – to feel a sense of belonging, valued, and appreciated.

“I saw they were rewarding people for their hard work or production and all this other stuff,” says Devon. That was obviously something nice, plus at the end of the day, I didn’t find a position that I wanted after I graduated college. So it was time for me to get out of the restaurant industry. I wasn’t thinking about doing insurance at the start, but I figured if people are enjoying it, they’re making good money, and they are helping a lot of families with better insurance, then I thought it would be the right fit for me. I like helping people – that’s always been the main thing for me.”

The company’s mission of HOPE, Helping Other People Everyday, truly spoke to Devon. But once he decided to go all in, he quickly realized you can’t put success on the fast track. No matter what you do that’s new, you have to pay your dues.

Devon is no exception.

“It was a very slow start,” says Devon. “I don’t think I really made much money for the first two months. I didn’t sell a whole lot. I was kind of in my head in the beginning, as most people are when you’re not used to sales. It’s kind of scary to talk around other people sometimes, and I think that was one of my challenges, but I told myself, if other people could do it, why couldn’t I? But first, I had to build the confidence in myself, and once I started catching some traction, that’s kind of when it picked up.”

“At the end of the day, I think it was just more of just doing the thing. It finally clicked in my head. I was like, “Hey, it’s time for me to stop being scared and make it happen. It’s a mindset shift from the customer service industry to the sales mindset.”

Mindset is something Devon says he also learned from another important person in his life, his grandma.

“Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandma while my mom worked,” says Devon, “so that’s kind of where I think I got a lot of my characteristics of wanting to do stuff all the time. I was always outside fishing, in the woods, building forts, and just doing outdoor activities while I was younger. I was very close with her. My grandma loved being outside and loved spending time with me. I learned a lot from her. I learned how to be independent and so much more.”

Besides his grandmother, there’s another very special woman who inspired Devon: his wife, Alexis.

“I met Alexis in high school,” says Devon. “We met in my junior year in 2011. We were just friends for a while, and then in 2012, we started dating and made it official, dating throughout college. When I started at USHA, Alexis was living in Orlando with me, so the day I started, it was actually her birthday. She wasn’t very happy that I was going to work at this new position on her birthday,” he laughs, “but it all worked out in the end. We got married in 2022.”

Earlier this year, Devon and Alexis welcomed a new addition to their family: their son, Luca.

“I’ve always been a big family guy,” says Devon. “I’ve always liked to put my family first if possible. And Luca obviously comes first. I was always the one doing stuff, so I was always out on the go, going to dinner, going out a lot, just doing as much as I could all the time. But now having a newborn, obviously that was kind of a game-changer for me, now we’re home. It’s just about trying to raise Luca, maybe take him out to dinners here and there, but really just enjoy as much time as we possibly can with him because there’s only so much time that Luca’s going to be little.”

Besides his son Luca, Devon is also responsible for many more “newbies” in his life, all the agents he welcomes into his team at USHEALTH Advisors. But Devon says he’s always up for the daily challenge.

“I want everybody to know that I truly care about their personal mission and what they’re looking to get out of life,” says Devon. “Any person that I come in contact with, if I have the ability to influence them in a positive direction, I will definitely do so. I’m always a giving person, and we will always try to lead people down the right path if possible, no matter how hard the decisions are. I’ll always put people first, I’m just trying to live the company’s mission – helping other people every day, helping my own agents, helping their families, helping clients.

“One of my greatest accomplishments in life so far is becoming successful in my career here at USHA because now I’m building financial freedom for my family. I’ve always wanted to make sure I could provide properly for my wife and kids. I’ve got that now, and I’m in a situation where I can provide for them to the best of my ability and, at the same time enjoy my career, which is always focused on caring about other people.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky

Bet on Yourself – Kyle Flierl

Bet on Yourself

“All things are possible to he who believes.” – Mark 9:23

And there you have it. Let’s get specific in this case and turn that belief in your direction. All things are possible if you believe in yourself, your gifts, your abilities, your talents, and your will to persevere and embrace what makes you unique.

Kyle Flierl has lived this philosophy for most of his life. And it’s worked—just ask him. In Kyle’s own words, his belief in himself and his teams has everyone, as Kyle likes to describe it, “rocking and rolling.” Kyle is a Division Sales Leader, running two offices for USHEALTH Advisors in Buffalo, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s been in the industry for 7+ years – starting fresh out of school, not knowing a thing about health insurance. But Kyle did know a thing or two about cars, and more specifically, the Ford Lincoln.

Remember the Lincoln – we’ll circle back around on that in a bit.

Kyle’s initial lack of knowledge about health insurance is not uncommon. In fact, it’s a familiar theme for most agents who start at USHA and yet become incredibly successful because, remember, with a little belief, all things are possible.

“My greatest challenge so far in life was definitely getting started with the opportunity here,” says Kyle. “I mean, I started right out of college. I was a 21-year-old kid, didn’t really know anything about deductibles, copays or anything like that. So coming into the industry I had to put my nose to the grindstone, learn everything there was to know about the health coverage, as well as how to talk to the clients we’re helping – and it just was a huge challenge for me. Sometimes it takes a little bit for me to get the grasp of everything, so it took me a good three, or four months to really get comfortable. But while it was my biggest challenge, it was also my greatest accomplishment, getting me to where I am today. If you were to ask me seven-and-a-half years ago if I’d be in the health insurance industry let alone have two offices that I oversee, I would’ve said you’re absolutely crazy! But one thing leads to another. You have to have the confidence in yourself, you have to believe in yourself and take it from there.”

Kyle did take it from there. Very early in his career, he was asked to step into a leadership role and help recruit and build teams in Buffalo and, eventually, in Charlotte. His teams have responded to his leadership and amassed over $55 million in issued business.

Rocking and rolling, indeed.

Kyle says he has always believed in giving back and putting other people’s needs first. He says growing up In Buffalo greatly influenced his character and philosophy on life.

“Buffalo is awesome, says Kyle. “I mean, it’s called the “City of Good Neighbors”, and that’s the name for a reason. The nickname is something I’ve always known about Buffalo and I guess I may have taken for granted, now that I am living in a new city. The City of Good Neighbors isn’t just a slogan, I feel it is truly lived and embraced by everyone who calls Buffalo home. Whether it is lending an extra hand to shovel some strangers driveway during one of our crazy snow storms, or supporting local causes, there is nothing quite like the people in Buffalo. Honestly, I think it relates a lot to our office and overall business model as well – H.O.P.E. – Helping Other People Everyday. That goes hand-in-hand with Buffalo’s nickname. Being there to support one another, whether on someone’s specific team, or not, it doesn’t matter, we are all here to help.”

“Our Regional Sales Leader, James Sackos, gave our Buffalo office the nickname “Buffalo Mafia”, a spin off of the famous Buffalo Bills Mafia. When I asked why, James said, “This office is unlike any other I visit. You guys have such a strong, supportive culture here. You feel it as soon as you walk in the door.” And that is something I am super proud of. Don’t get me wrong, putting up big production numbers is awesome, but having a welcoming, supportive culture means the world to me and I know it does to all of the agents within our Buffalo Mafia, just like it does in the City of Good Neighbors.”

Let’s be honest: it’s a great message to live by. If you live in Buffalo, like the Buffalo Bills, you’re always helping, always circling the wagons—protecting and defending.


But it’s not only where Kyle grew up; let’s also zone in and give credit to the home where he and his older sister Krissy were raised, which had a tremendous impact on Kyle’s character and, eventually, his business model. He might not even be in business at USHA if not for his father’s circumstances, which inspired Kyle to take a chance in life.

“My mom and dad are both W2 employees,” says Kyle. “My mom works for a property-casualty agency up in Buffalo, so I guess insurance is in the blood. But my dad worked for Ford and Lincoln Mercury for about 25 years. Something I think really helped me with choosing my career at USHA is my Dad worked for that car company for a long period of time, but when the recession hit in 2008 and 2009, he got laid off. At 50-years-old, he basically had to start from scratch. I was in middle school at the time, and saw some of the challenges he and my mom went through. They sheltered me from a lot of it, which was kind of them. But, I overheard some of the discussions and stuff they were going through and knew eventually I wanted to get into an industry where I wasn’t going to have to hit that reset button at 50-years-old, no matter what was going on.”

However, before Kyle could find his way to USHEALTH Advisors, he took a detour and saw an unusual opportunity to live out a dream—sort of.

“In college, I worked toward a business administration degree,” says Kyle, “with a concentration in sports management. My passion when I was getting out of college was working for a professional sports team.
The goal of course, was to work for the Buffalo Bills. But toward the end of my college career, before I actually took the position with USHEALTH, I got an internship with the Buffalo Bisons, which is the minor league baseball team in Buffalo. While I was super excited to get my foot in the door in the sports industry, I realized pretty quickly I would have to work my butt off for a good 10-to-15 years to get where I wanted to be. You’ve really got to stack up your resumes, or get to know certain individuals to help you move up.”

“In the first couple of games working for the Bisons, they had a bunch of staffing shortages, and since I was the new guy on the block, they decided to throw me into the mascot costume. So I was running around the baseball field as Bleu Cheese (who competes in the Wing, Cheese, and Carrot Race), and as Buster T. Bison, who is the team’s mascot. I didn’t really know any better at the time, I was just excited to have the opportunity to get involved and see all the stuff behind the scenes there.”

“But then I got home and was talking with my dad, and he’s like, “Hey, how was the game today?” “I told him, “Oh, it was great. They had me do a bunch of stuff. I actually got the opportunity to put on the mascot costume and run around the field. My dad said, “Are you serious?” I said, “Yeah, I was excited about it.” And my dad comes back, “You didn’t go to college for four years to get out and be a fricking mascot.” And that’s when the light bulb came on and I thought, “Oh, you know what? You’re right. I mean, I thought I was excited about it, but maybe I should be looking at something else and get my resume out there.”

Kyle did get his resume out there and realized he didn’t want to take the safe route, as his Dad did, working for a corporation. However, the road to risk-taking was one Kyle had to navigate on the “backroads.”

“I was doing a bunch of interviews, and my dad says, “Hey, you’ve got a lot of opportunity. It’s great. But don’t take any commission-only jobs, and don’t do any group interviews. And, of course, what did I do here, those exact things!” laughs Kyle. “I applied for my insurance license to work at USHA, but my parents had no idea.”

“The only reason they found about it was my New York license showed up in the mail and they said, “Oh, you took that insurance job, didn’t you? I was like, yeah, well, let’s see what’s going to happen.” And then every day when I was coming home after work, my dad was always asking me, “Hey, did you get that sale today? Did you get that sale today?” He wasn’t being a jerk about it, it was kind of that extra kick in the butt that I needed right off the bat, to be like, you know what, I have to make sure I get my butt in gear with this opportunity, make sure when I do come home each day I have that opportunity to tell them I did get that sale and that everything is rocking and rolling.”

Kyle says that while his parents and even some of his friends were on the fence about his career choice, two very important people never wavered in their belief that he could make it. One of those people, of course, was Kyle—remember, it’s all possible if you believe in yourself—and the other was the special lady in his life.

“My girlfriend, Jessica, who is now my wife, was all in,” says Kyle. She told me, “Hey, you’re young, you’re motivated. If there’s going to be an opportunity to do it, this is the time. If it doesn’t work out, we’ve got plenty of time to adjust.” So she supported me starting this opportunity at USHA, always has, and now as ironic as it is, my dad’s getting ready to retire and now he wants to come on and be my full-time recruiter in Buffalo and Charlotte. So it’s funny how everything has changed and come full circle in a short seven and a half years here, not just my dad, but marrying Jessica as well.”

As he lauched his career at USHEALTH Advisors, Kyle’s drive to succeed also meant a focus on something tangible, a Ford Lincoln. To increase his drive to succeed, Kyle made a very public bet.

“As I was growing up, my dad was always driving Ford Lincoln’s and then they came out with the Lincoln Continental. I still had the pamphlet for the car when it was getting ready for the release. In fact, I still have it here in my office. But when I was starting at USHA, I was sitting with Jessica and my buddy and I said, “You know what? If this opportunity is really going to work out, I’m getting a Lincoln within two years. And my girlfriend’s like, “Yeah, sure you are.” My buddy’s like, “There’s no way you’re getting a Lincoln in two years.” So that was always one of my goals getting into the business. I’m a car person, so that was always kind of my motivation.”

With his vision of the Lincoln driving his aspirations, Kyle hit the gas and got to work. Initially, though, it was far from life in the fast lane.

“When I first got started, it was tough,” says Kyle. “We didn’t have a dialer, we didn’t have a CRM. I actually got a stack of 10 leads a week and once I called ’em then it was like, ok, figure it out from there. So there was a lot of self-development I had to focus on, trying to find people to talk to, going through Google, getting lead data that I could really rock and roll with. And then, finally in October of 2017, we got set up with the dialer. I was like, “Oh my God, I have unlimited leads I can call. And then it kind of took off from there. It was right before open enrollment, which was nice.”

Fast forward to 2023, and an invitation from the home office for Kyle to open and grow a second office in Charlotte, NC. Kyle took the leap of faith and is now in his current position as a Division Sales Leader for Buffalo and Charlotte.

Kyle and his wife now live in the Charlotte area, as does his older sister Krissy, who had moved down first with her family, and the expectation Kyle’s parents may make a move as well. Kyle’s other family, his work family, is happy with how things have played out. And Kyle is more than happy to help keep everyone growing and thriving.

“I tell my new agents as long as you have a strong work ethic, you have a decent personality and if you’re not a natural introvert, or you get past being one, you can make it here. You’ll have those tough times where you have to pick up the phone and have uncomfortable conversations, but as long as you’re coachable, I can help you fill in everything in-between. I can teach you all you need to know about insurance. We have our USHA agent website that we designed with all of our training videos. You can watch them 10 times over to help you get better. But I think those three things I mentioned are characteristics that are not teachable, right? You’re either born with them, or they’re instilled in you at an early age. And again, if you give me those three things, I’ll help you take care of everything else. I always have the new agent sitting right next to me. And same thing with our leaders.”

“I’m not a division leader who sits in his office and just combs through stuff and runs numbers. I’m out in the pit with everyone else, unless I’m doing an interview or training. I can’t ask an agent to do something I’m not willing to do and they see that every day, that I’m here, I’m grinding right next to them. I’m coaching through every single phone call when they get a lead transfer. We’re on the line handling all those objections and I have ’em jot down every single little piece of information as we’re going through those pitches. The more you put into this, the more you’re going to get. I mean, if you’re expecting someone to do it for you, you’re in the wrong spot. Make it a goal to outwork that person next to you and everything’s going to take care of itself.”

Kyle says he knows it’s not only working hard, it’s also working on yourself. Personal development is one of the keys to greater success.

“I read a lot of books, says Kyle. “A few books that really stand out to me the most are Atomic Habits and Rich Dad, Poor Dad, just for the personal investing side and the development with all of that. That was a huge thing that helped, because again, just growing up in life, it was always the W-2 career I saw, with my parents working nine to five, not really having to do anything above and beyond that. So coming in and being self-employed and having my own business now was something that I never really learned about. I had to figure it out all on my own. There was a lot of finance stuff. I had to learn about taxes, I had to learn about retirement. I also had to learn to start watching motivational videos, listen to podcasts, read books, anything you can do to better yourself. People can sit at home and binge-watch Netflix or TV shows all they want, but if you’re not continually developing yourself, you’re only going to get so far. Like learning from Atomic Habits, developing those habits on a day-to-day basis that turn into those weekly habits, monthly habits, quarterly and yearly habits is huge as well. And that’s something we really instill in all of our agents in Buffalo and Charlotte.”

Developing a life he can be proud of is important to Kyle and Jessica. Though having a family is a goal one day, the couple does has a fur baby they love spending time with, their golden retriever, Sammy. Kyle says the unconditional love a dog offers is a savior for a self-employed business owner.

“You have your ups and downs with the business,” says Kyle. “But you go home and there’s Sammy, wagging his tail, so excited to see me, to play fetch or whatever it is, and it’s like nothing else matters, right? It’s great. You’ve got the dog, your sidekick with you, your wife that supports you in everything, and so nothing else matters at home, which is nice.”

There’s also that internal unconditional love, loving yourself, knowing that you matter, which is crucial to stepping up and stepping out in life.

“I’ve thought about this, and this is something I talk about a lot with recruits when they’re hesitant about coming into the opportunity and what this career can really do for them. But I tell them, the biggest thing is you’ve got to bet on yourself. If you believe in yourself, and that you can do this, that’s what matters, right? It’s you versus you. Don’t get too deep into your head about the business. Keep it simple. You’ll have ups and downs, but if you can consistently bet on yourself and put in a good day’s work, it’s going to take care of itself. I’ve always bet on myself throughout life.”

And among the bets Kyle made on himself, and for himself, there’s that Ford Lincoln. At the time, his ultimate driving machine. If you recall, Kyle promised himself and announced he’d be behind the wheel of that car within two years after joining USHEALTH Advisors.

Do did he do it?

“I made it,” says Kyle. “I got a Ford Mustang first, then I sold it and used the money to buy the Ford Lincoln. So it took me one year and six months. I remember driving the Lincoln home, my first stop was at my parents’ house and my dad was like, “Are you freaking kidding me? You got this Lincoln?” I still had my pamphlet there, sitting in the passenger seat, and I was reminding him about my goal when I first started with USHA, and how he and my mom just kind of rolled their eyes, and brushed it off. But then there I was, taking my dad in the Lincoln and letting him drive it around. I looked over and saw a little tear coming down his face and listened to him telling me how proud he was of me – and honestly – I still get chills thinking about it to this day. It’s amazing what this opportunity has given me, my wife and also my extended family as well.”

An opportunity Kyle saw, seized, and has built up from day one. A big bet on himself – and a Lincoln – for the win.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky