Want to build a better business? Then sometimes it’s good to look for a little motherly advice, or to use her as an example for your life. For Seth Dorne this is easy. His mom Susan serves as his inspiration to become the best he can be.

If she can do it, so can he.

“I was in 4th or 5th grade when my mom was diagnosed,” says Seth. “But I didn’t find out until I was about 11-or 12-years old. I actually learned about my mom’s condition from one of my childhood friends, because my mom told his mom. I had no idea what it was. I really didn’t understand it for about two years. I thought it was something that would heal on its own and go away.”

It wasn’t going away, it never will, but for Seth’s mom, it’s not what defines her, it’s simply what she deals with and she serves as perhaps Seth’s greatest source of motivation. “My mom’s a trooper,”says Seth. “She was the class clown in high school, she can laugh anything off. She’s in a wheelchair, she can’t walk, but she’s all there mentally, kicking ass and taking names as she goes. For her it’s not a problem, there’s never an issue.”

If she can do it, so can he.

The “it” is Multiple Sclerosis. For Seth and his family it is something they have dealt with for 20 years. Two decades that have helped to shape Seth’s life and drive him to be a great success in whatever challenge he faces, from sports to business. Seth serves as a Field Sales Leader for USHEALTH Advisors, and he serves as one of the best – inspiring himself and his own team to serve at-or-near the top of the production charts each and every week. Be tough, work hard, help other people everyday.

“My greatest challenge in life is to be competitive with myself,” says Seth. “I’ve always been very competitive in sports, whether in college or high school, and I gained my competitive edge from watching my mom. Helping to care for her with the MS could be a challenge, especially when I was younger. It’s a disease that sets in slowly. Once it gets worse, you can’t really get better. You lose certain feelings and functions, like eyesight, hearing and once you lose it, it never comes back. You reach a point where you can’t really get better.”

So you adapt. You shift. You change and you accept the challenge.

Despite the challenges his family faced, Seth persevered.  Never really missing a beat. “I loved my childhood,” says Seth. “I’ve gotten to do everything I really ever wanted to do in my life. I played a ton of different sports and my parents supported me through everything. When I was super young my parents enrolled me in karate. Then I moved onto combat sports like wrestling. Then in 5th grade, Brazilian Jujitsu.”

But it was the wrestling, especially the brutal competition of high school wrestling and his own drive to be the best at the sport, that eventually got the best of Seth.  Shortly after high school, the physical punishment his body had endured led to reconstructive elbow surgeries and a few years later, two shoulder surgeries.

The second shoulder surgery was in August of 2014 and Seth says it was the worst. “I had to sit in a chair for two months,” he says. “I couldn’t sleep and lay on my back because of the blood flow into my shoulder. The pain was terrible, I was on plenty of drugs to get through it. It was two months before I could shake someone’s hand again.”

But everything happens for a reason, timing can be your best friend and take you places you never expected. When the handshaking resumed, Seth was out looking for work, having recently left a job at a pharmacy that was no longer serving him. Seth says he went on seven different interviews.

The last of the seven and the last hand he shook took place on October 8th, 2014. Seth remembers that date for a couple of reasons – it led him to the career he loves – and to the love of his life.

“Of all the interviews I did, I couldn’t find anyone paying more than $55,000 a year in salary and bonuses,” says Seth. “Then I interviewed with Mara. She told me about the career and the money she was earning. I figured if this girl can do this job and make the ton of money she claimed she was making, even if I can do half of that, I’m still going to do great. If she could do it, so could I.”

Seth worked hard, earning his way up to the Field Sales Leader position and he and Mara became great friends. This past February, they became husband and wife. Now Seth has the career he loves and the girl he loves and he says he owes so much of it to his philosophy in life.

“I think anyone can achieve anything they want in life,” says Seth. “If you can see it and capture it and visualize a goal in your head, then you really can accomplish it. Whether it’s a leadership position you want, then work like you are already in it and get there. If it is something you want – picture it, feel it, see it. If you can feel your goal, you can obtain it. You only need the sensations of it and you can have it. I don’t believe in a lot of hokey stuff, but I do believe if you have a goal you can get it. I wanted to be in a relationship with Mara and it worked out. It took a while, (he laughs), but it happened.”

A lot is happening. There will be a new addition to the family this coming February when the couple welcomes another son into the family, (Mara already has two children of her own, Liam and Lilli). Seth says he loves being married and looks to Mara as his best friend. “It’s good to have someone there,” he says. “Someone to call on and to rely on and know that no matter what happens they are there at the end of the day to guide you and support you.”

Seth and Mara are also working hard together to make their other baby – their sales teams with USHEALTH Advisors – the best in the country.

Seth says: “This company is such a tremendous opportunity. The coolest thing is it’s an American company and a true opportunity for those who really want it. The people you work with, you rely on them as colleagues and as friends. It’s a sales organization that works together to achieve all of their accomplishments, it makes us different. Colleagues teach others how to be more successful. I work my tail off and have since day one. I track the leader boards and watch what others are doing. I always told myself and my leaders if they can do it, I can do it. It’s just a matter of time before I get there. I even brought my sister into the business and she’s on track for great things.”

Seth says you need to rise to the challenge in this, or any business, because challenges will always be there, and it’s how he views those challenges that inspires his team. “I’ve learned so much from my mom,” says Seth. “If my mom can get through what she’s got going on, then I can get through this. When I was younger and I would have a tough wrestling practice, then I would think of her and know I can get through this. I apply it to this sales career as well. You hear the word ‘No’ a lot in sales. When I hear all these people tell me, ‘No’, then I think about what my mom is going through, and know that I can get a ‘Yes’, and stay positive. If she can do it, so can I.”

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

For Dan Dacquisto it’s always been about performance, on-and-off the field. Learn from the best and then put yourself to the test.

“I got a big part of my work ethic looking up to athletes,” says Dan. “Their goals, their ambition, their drive.  It started with Michael Jordan, then watching guys like Kobi Bryant. Kobi’s obsession with what he did was amazing. He had to make a lot of sacrifices to be as good as he was. I was like that in high school. I was a very outgoing person, but I had to push myself to adhere to the disciplines to accomplish what I wanted.”

Dan grew up in Milwaukee, where sports and the outdoors were always front and center. “Growing up football was a big part of my life,” says Dan. “Me and my brother and my Dad were always watching ESPN. I was outside running around, playing hoops, out on the playground, even joined a rec league we had in the summer. Growing up in the city there were always kids playing outside. That was the first 11 years of my life. But then my parents decided to move us to the suburbs, to get us into better schools. That was tough for me. When my dad first told me we were going to move I was just so sad. I knew I’d have to make new friends. Going from the city to the suburbs, it was a different way of life.”

Time for Dan to put on his game face. He had no choice. “A few years after we moved, my dad lost his job and started drinking more,” says Dan. “I was going into high school. My dad wasn’t really there for me or my brother. There was a lot of arguing at home between my mom and my dad. It really upset my brother and I. So I would leave and go and hang out with my friends. My brother is younger and he and my mom stayed in the house so it pained them a lot more. I’m disappointed I was not there more for them, but I learned a lot from that situation and it has helped me with my current relationships, as well as leading my team at work.”

As an outlet to what was going on at home Dan says he put his energy into football and academics: “For three years I was insane, sticking to the regimen of football and school. I had a very strict routine, workouts and training. Each year I got better playing linebacker and safety. By my senior, year I was All-State. I had learned so much watching the professional athletes at the top of their game.”

As he pursued a degree in Exercise Science in college, Dan’s obsession with outstanding performance led him to an internship with a performance training company. “In the summer of 2013 they offered me a full-time position with benefits,” says Dan. “I worked with that company for two years and ended up becoming the Director of Operations in Loudoun County, Virginia. But eventually I didn’t like where management was coming from. The guys above me left because of the owner and that’s when I started to look for other jobs. I found an opportunity on LinkedIn.”

For Dan it was a game-changer. He met with Jamie Blumberg, a Division Manager with USHEALTH Advisors and learned more about the career. “I was 24-years-old then,” says Dan. “I knew it was insurance and I saw the numbers and what it could be. I knew I could have flexibility with this job. So I passed the exam, came into the office and started making calls. I had a script and I kept grinding away. What kept me going was I knew what this could be – stock options, quarterly bonuses. I kept grinding and got energized by others around me. I think by my 3rd month I was advisor of the month. I made about $9,000 in that month, way more than I ever made. I started going out on appointments with some other agents and I was then surprised at our Christmas party to learn I was being promoted to an Field Training Agent.

Dan’s experience with his high school football team made it a natural transition to go from individual performance, to part of something bigger. “I changed my goals to team-based,” says Dan. “I had no idea what I was getting into and it was a challenge. The first year was a bit of a struggle. Once I was able to go to last year’s Leaders Meeting, it was a good wake-up call. It’s just an awesome company, an awesome environment. There is such a desire by so many to be great. The cool thing is, it’s not easy, but you have so much support at USHEALTH.”

But Dan has also learned it’s about getting back up off the mat. As Les Brown would say, “if you fall down land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up.”

“It’s so much about how I deal with the down days,” says Dan. What I’ve gained from that is learning to deal with anything in business and the rest of my life – customers, agents, girlfriends. Because I have had to deal with the struggles. It’s almost necessary. But if  you have a great work ethic and go all-in, then you win. I’ve found the best days I’ve had at work are the ones where I don’t want to come in. Most of the time great things happen to me. You feel good just because you went, you showed up. It goes along with everything else you do.”

For everything else he does, Dan brings the same level of drive and discipline, especially when it comes to his health, the foundation of everything: “In my spare time, my me time, I’m really big on going to the gym. I go six days-a-week, it’s in my map of life. I workout early in the morning, or sometimes after work. Because I know how important your body and good health are for you. I try to keep healthy eating habits as well. But my gym habits carry over to everything else I do. Even back in college my friends would say, ‘how do you do it? How do you go out at night then get up and workout?’ It’s an addiction I’d say, a good addiction. You just get used to it. It’s a great time of day to be alone in a sense and challenge myself and see if I can do more than I did yesterday, or to go longer. There are no excuses in the gym, it’s just you and you. You can’t really blame anyone else.”

At only 26-years-of-age Dan is on a fast track to success in all areas of life. And he uses lessons from his dad to fuel him. “Going back to my dad and my experience with him, he wasn’t a bad father, I just wish he would have been around more to teach me. But I use these lessons now for my team, how important it is to be there for them. I push them and push me to reach our potential.”

As with anything in life, especially when you lead, you learn that living is giving. Dan has embraced the lessons he has learned in life from another great teacher, his grandmother. “My grandma on my dad’s side – I spent a lot of time with her growing up,” says Dan. “She was a very religious, sweet woman. Very spiritual. I never heard her use a bad word. She died at age 96, in her sleep. What a great way to go. There were a lot of people at her funeral. They all met my grandma and always said how she put everyone else before her. Her mentality, her heart, the meaning of her life rubbed off on me as well.”

We are all pieces of our life’s experiences and we should use these in a positive way to share our gifts and to teach the world. Dan says for him it’s about clarity in purpose: “I think it goes back to having a vision for yourself. Make it clear. What do you want to accomplish? Surround yourself with great people, but know what you want to do won’t be easy. Make a lot of sacrifices. There are very few super successful people in the world. Don’t point fingers. Embrace different. Promote change in a positive way.”

That sounds like a good game to play in life. Dan would know, he’s got game.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

“Stuff is just stuff. You’ve just gotta keep the people around who mean something to you. Focus on them, that’s the stuff that’s important.” – Joe Baskin

Standing there next to his beautiful bride-to-be Joe knew the stuff he had in this moment came directly from his heart. After months of trying to plan a wedding, the planning had become overwhelming and so Joe and Stacy decided they would get married on their company trip, overlooking the beach in Cabo San Lucas, one of the most beautiful places in Mexico. But mother nature was trying to postpone the ceremony and the party.

“With just a couple of days to go before our trip Stacy found her dress, got it fixed just right and as we get into Cabo, there’s a hurricane,” says Joe. “It rained every day, except for the two days we had meetings scheduled. On the last day we thought we might catch a break. That morning it was cloudy, but by the middle of the day the clouds broke and we finally had our chance. We got married under a cabana overlooking the ocean.”

What Joe didn’t know at the time was not only would his team members from USHEALTH Advisors be present at the ceremony, so would the leaders of the company. As the hurricane winds blew during the week, many had gotten wind this wedding ceremony was happening and decided to show up. “I only met our CEO Troy McQuagge a few times,” says Joe. “But Troy and all the other guys I had never met – I turned around and there they were. It was special. That would only happen with a company like this. Andy Montague, my division manager, was the one who married us. He got certified as a minister just to conduct the ceremony. It was pretty awesome.”

While Andy was the one who married the couple before the eyes of God, Joe says it was Stacy who brought him closer to a relationship with God, especially when his path to finding this company was along the broken road of desperation.

“In 2006 I bought a small, custom automotive shop,” (in his hometown of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee), says Joe. “And we made a ton of money. It was called Cowboys Custom Auto Works. Then the greatest recession since the Great Depression hit in ’08 and ’09 and folks didn’t need, or certainly couldn’t afford custom cars. I lost everything. It got so bad I had to move back in with my mom and dad. I got divorced from my first wife and lived with my parents. I borrowed gas money from my mom just to drive to the job interview with USHEALTH Advisors.”

Joe also credits meeting Stacy with helping him to overcome the challenges life lay before him. “After my divorce and losing everything, Stacy saved me,” says Joe. “She brought me to know God. That was the greatest gift I ever got.”

Joe says he was also given the gift of a mom who he watched work so hard, as well as survive an abusive relationship with Joe’s father, whom his mom divorced when Joe was only 8-years-old. “Many times divorce is hard,” says Joe. “But I was happy about my parents splitting up. My dad was abusive to me as a kid, so I was happy to get out of that atmosphere. A few years later my mom remarried to a man who had the hard job of raising a very rambunctious 12-year-old boy. But he was very different, he was very loving and patient. I was a typical teenager growing up in the country in Tennessee. I was into motorcycles, horses and fighting. As a teenager I would as soon fight a fence post as anyone else. The norm was fighting, everybody had a chip on their shoulder. But after a fight everyone would then go sneak a beer with each other. I’ve got real good friends I grew up with. Everybody still sees each other and keeps up with each other.”

Joe continues: “I never got in real serious trouble, was never in the back of a police car, or anything like that. I was too scared of my momma. Being a single mom, out of an abusive relationship, she worked her brains out. She was the comptroller of a high-end automotive dealership, I got my work ethic from her. It’s why I’m not afraid to jump in and get stuff done. My mom made sure you walked the line. If not, she would whoop that booty! It happened a few times. I never got a whoopin’ I didn’t deserve, but there were a bunch I got away with – because I didn’t get caught!”

As a recently promoted Division Manager, Joe’s responsibility now is  keeping his agents in check, but Joe says it’s his wife Stacy’s job to keep him in line. “Stacy does some sales,” says Joe. “But she does a really, really good job of recruiting and filling the room. She also attempts to keep me organized which is a full-time job. My support from Stacy with this company has always been really high. What I have had, that not all the agents have, is that support at home. That’s important.”

Joe says now he gains so much satisfaction out of helping other agents become successful. “Watching an agent write their first new piece of business, that’s the greatest feeling, without a doubt. The worst feeling is watching an agent not get it and then get washed out.”

But Joe emphasizes it doesn’t have to be like that, it doesn’t have to happen. If he did it, anyone can do it.

“When I came here, I used my mom-taught work ethic,” says Joe. “Even when I had no money, I had a strong work ethic. Stacy also knew what we needed to do. When you come here, (to USHEALTH Advisors), everyone tells you how much money you can make. My first commission check was $2,400. I went from no money, to earning that in a week. I saw that if I did what they tell me to do, the way they tell me to do it, I can make this happen and make a living. Anyone can do it. You’ve got to keep working, when you get down you’ve gotta get back up. Life is gonna knock you down, but you’ve gotta keep punching. I don’t look at life focusing on any great disappointments or big challenges, it’s a bunch of small things you overcome. Figure out what your roadblock is and get around it. I lost it all, came here broke and destitute and the next thing you know life is great.”

Joe and Stacy’s wedding in Cabo on the beach in 2014 was appropriate since they are self-described “water folk”. Not only was it the perfect place for the couple to get married, they just closed on a lake house they always wanted and where they now live full-time. Joe says being out on the water is like a mini-vacation every day, taking he and Stacy away from the demands and stresses of every day life.

Life is good. Joe says at a recent company rewards trip, the CEO, Troy McQuagge walked up to him with a big smile and started laughing and he said, ‘Baskin, I was just thinking about you! You met the girl of your dreams. You got the house of your dreams, man it’s pretty good to be you.’ “I said Troy, it’s damn good to be me!”

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

For Tyka Booker this is the way the moment was supposed to happen. She knew God had a plan and this was it. Tyka was the one who was supposed to be there, holding her hand, as her mother took her last breath. Cancer was the culprit, but for Tyka she had reconciled long ago, with great clarity, that it was time for her mom to move on.

This wasn’t easy. Tyka and her sisters kept it a secret for much of their lives – their mom had two loves, and they always came in second. Her first love was her addiction, her next “hit”, the thing she felt she couldn’t live without.

“My mom was addicted to heroin,” says Tyka. “But she and I always had a good relationship. Her addiction was one thing, but our relationship was another. I was able to separate her addiction from the respect I had for her. I never spoke to her in a bad way. If I was angry I would tell her, but I never disrespected her at all. When I lost her, I felt OK losing her. It was time.”

Tyka’s older and younger sisters had more of a struggle coming to terms with the addiction that robbed them of much of their childhood. Tyka says her younger sister was disrespectful and angry and she showed it every day. Her older sister had to step up to be the mother the girls never really had. Because while their mother was present, she was rarely “there”.  The drugs kept her locked deep inside.

The experience has made Tyka appreciate not only life, but what she identifies as her greatest accomplishment in life – being a mom. “It’s a privilege, one that is not automatically granted,” says Tyka. “I do the best I can for my children. The greatest challenge in life is being able to trust that how I show up in their life every day is enough. Losing my mom, (ten years ago), made me realize the importance of being a mother. The impact of the lessons I learned. Despite it all I still have conversations with my mom. As I continue to have things happen in my life, I still talk to my mom and ask for advice.”

Tyka is the mother of two children, 7-year-old Elijah and 17-year-old Nisaa. She says it’s her focus that they want for nothing. Never to experience the childhood that she did. Never live lacking life’s basic needs or desires: to be seen, heard and valued.

Because of the addiction, Tyka says her mom would sometimes sell all they had to get the next hit of heroin. “There were days we would come home and literally have nothing. My mom had sold our clothes and food. I still remember that low point in my life. I was getting ready to turn 13 and I was just so hungry – in the lunch line at school I stole a hot ham and cheese sandwich. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. When I came out the lunch lady was right there, she took me to the office. I was so afraid to tell them why I did what I did. I was a good student. Education was important and it was a distraction. The assistant principal kept asking me, ‘why are you stealing, are you a thief?’ “What I wanted to tell her was I’m SO hungry, I have no money. That was the reality. I had no food at home and no money and I was afraid to tell the truth for fear someone would call my mom, or come to my house and then everyone would know the truth. My sisters and I had agreed to keep our mom’s addiction a secret. No one knew. Instead I kept my mouth shut and the assistant principal punished me. She told me, ‘I hope you don’t grow up to be a thief and I’m suspending you for two days.’ “I just said OK.”

Never again. Sometimes it’s the darkest moments in life from which a new light emanates. Tyka knew she would have to make changes, to fend for herself. “I had my first job at 13-years-old,” says Tyka. “I worked at an after-school program at my middle school and I took my little paycheck to buy things like toiletries and food. My sisters went to work as well. Because of our situation we matured faster than most.”

Tyka says she couldn’t rely much on her father either. As she grew up, she came to learn her dad had another family and was barely around. So with maturity on a fast-track Tyka moved out of her home at age 17 and headed off to college at California State University – Long Beach. Tyka says she always knew a good education was her way out of her home and into a better financial situation. Her love of learning, great grades in school and life experience, led Tyka to focus on helping others. She started a career in education, working as a recruiter for American Continental University. It wasn’t too long before that job began that Tyka also gave birth to her first child, a moment that changed her life forever, because Tyka decided to make a change. Becoming a mom gave her the courage to share her story.

“Once I had my daughter, I decided to tell others about my childhood,” Tyka says. “It felt really good once I released it. Once I opened up and shared it, all my friends were so surprised. They told me they never knew. I always seemed so happy and did so well in school. I told them as long as I was going to school and making people laugh it helped, though it was a facade, I was simply afraid people would judge me and my family. I was hiding what was really going on in my own home. But once I opened up, I didn’t matter to me what people said or how they felt, because it was my situation. I didn’t know what would come of it. But I’ve grown in a variety of ways since I opened up and became a woman.”

Tyka & Sister Jasmine

Her career in education ran its course, but her desire to help others never waned, and in 2014 Tyka found herself in an interview to join USHEALTH Advisors. She’s never looked back.

“This is my third year here,” says Tyka. “This opportunity just felt right from the start. The ability to be flexible and be compensated for the time I put in, so I jumped on board the mission of HOPE, (Helping Other People Everyday). It is one of the best opportunities that exists for someone. I don’t know anywhere you can go, pay $300 and start your own business with virtually no overhead. I was never able to provide for my family like this anywhere before. Plus, we have these phenomenal people at the home office who do everything in their power to make sure we are supported and successful. Troy McQuagge is one of the best CEO’s and best men I have ever met. You see him and talk to him and hear him speak and you just want to follow him. I’ve met a ton of CEO’s through the years and Troy is absolutely the best.”

For Tyka, as it is for anyone who wants to make an impact, it’s all about getting better every day, for her husband Michael, her children and for others.

“I know I can always be better,” says Tyka. “I can always strive to make better decisions and treat people better. I work on being that person as much as possible. I am blessed in ways I don’t always deserve, but at the same time I am grateful for all I have and the financial situation relieves so much stress. If not for USHEALTH I never would have left the education field, but God had bigger plans for me than I could have ever created for myself. I’m just grateful.”

Tyka has advice for anyone traveling this journey of life, which is all of us. She grew up in the shadow of her mom needing two loves in life to get by, but Tyka knew there was really only one – and one thing you have to do to make it through. “Perseverance is key,” she says. “Regardless of any situation that you go through, or things that you encounter that you think might break you, they are actually things building your character and through perseverance you can see how great and strong you really are. You can be bigger and better than you even know.”

Until next time thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

Back in college there was one thing you’d be hard pressed to do against James Higgins – outshoot him. Today you’d be hard pressed to do something else – outwork him. As his father used to say to him, “you take one day off, you fall two days behind.” His dad never missed a day of work in his life.

Work hard, play hard.

It’s a life lesson “Higgs”, (as he’s best known to his family and friends), took to heart, even in his younger days playing sports. Football, baseball, basketball, tennis, Higgs was a kid who could do it all. Just behind his home was a park with tennis and basketball courts, so Higgs could practice. And getting good was easy, especially when the lessons were free.  After seven years of training, Higgs was a whiz with a racket, regularly beating the 2nd ranked kid on the high school tennis team almost every time he played him.  But his love for other sports, especially basketball, kept Higgs too busy to pursue life in between the chalk lines.

His tall and thin structure also made his career as the high school quarterback, one which was short-lived. “I was getting killed back there,” Higgs remembers. “And once I broke my ankle in my sophomore year I had to make a decision, one or the other. I chose basketball, and I made the commitment. In life you have to commit.”

The commitment and the hard work paid off. In 1987, Higgs’ college basketball team at Keystone Junior College, (in Northeastern Pennsylvania), won a national championship. Just recently the entire team celebrated their 30-year reunion, including an induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, something Higgs refers to as one of the “cooler moments of his life.”

There have been many moments along the way. The youngest of five siblings growing up in his Phoenixville PA home, Higgs was thankful for his older brothers who paved the way with plenty of hand-me-downs and pre-testing of his parents limits. “As long as I didn’t come home in a cop car or something else it was all good,” Higgs remembers. “As long as you checked in with mom, it was cool.” Mom ruled the roost while dad made his presence known in the local community. Working as the Senior Vice-President of the area’s largest steel mill, Higgs says his dad was well-liked and well-known. “Dad knew everybody,” says Higgs. “We got treated real well, real well. You’ve got to remember it was a small town.”

A rite of passage for many living in this small town, especially for young men graduating high school, was to head to the the Jersey Shore to work for the summer. Happy to follow in the footsteps of this long-standing tradition – Higgs hit the beach working for most of his college years as a bartender in Avalon and Wildwood, mixing drinks and mixing it up with the locals.

But life is always in constant flux and while he loved the sun and the sand, after graduating college and at the urging of his soon-to-be-wife Kristin, it was time to face reality and get a “real” job.

Getting in on the ground floor of what was to become one of the biggest technological advances in human history, Higgs put his faith in the cellphone business. “It was a good move,” Higgs says. “At the time commissions were $280 per sale.  But after five or six months of sharing part of my profits with the company, I thought to myself, why can’t I do this on my own?”

So in 1991 Higgs started his own business, Americom Communications Inc, and over the course of the next decade-plus he managed three stores with 13 full-time employees, consistently ranking in the top 5% of revenue in the country. “The commission was $200 an activation,” says Higgs. “And I was doing about 400 activations a month. You do the math. It was a party.”

But like anything in life, change is inevitable, growth is optional. As competition grew and the industry exploded, the writing was on the wall for profits and job stability. Higgs sold his company and headed for a stint in real estate. “For about five years it was good,” says Higgs. “But then the bubble burst, as did the household budget. My wife said we better get some money flowing again in here.”

While the financial crisis took its toll, a different challenge was surfacing at home, one which would change the direction of his family’s life.

“Around the time my son Aidan was about three-years-old, Kristin kept telling me something wasn’t right,” says Higgs. “I didn’t believe it, but she insisted, so we decided to get Aidan tested. That’s when I learned about the reality of insurance. At the time I was paying about $800-a-month for a policy, thinking I had the best of the best. I was wrong. It’s the worst feeling thinking you are protecting your family, only to find out you aren’t.”

“Fortunately for my family and for Aidan we live close to two of the best facilities in the world for testing children, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Dupont in Delaware. We visited both places and they came back to us telling us Aidan had severe autism. The docs then said they would put him on Ritalin and basically leave him in a corner. We said no way. I’ll never forget walking out of that hospital. Kristin was holding the prescription for Aidan and she ripped it up and said, ‘I’ll do this. I will talk to my son and I will get him to talk.’ “We’ve never given Aidan a single drug. Kristin is amazing. Every day after school she helps Aidan with about an hour’s worth of homework, then they get to work on life. Kristin spends about two hours on life skills with Aidan teaching him things she thinks are important for him to know. Without her, Aidan would not be speaking. That’s what she does. Without her, you have no idea. Kristin is dedicated to making Aidan the best person he can be.”

The experience with Aidan was also the moment Higgs learned about health insurance. What’s real and what’s not. “We took our insurance card to both facilities and they took it and processed it,” Higgs says. “Not long after our visits I’m told I owe $17,000  for Aidan’s testing. I had a managed-care plan and somehow we crossed over some line in Pennsylvania where our plan was now out-of-network. After threatening to call several TV stations and going round-and-round with the insurance company, they finally agreed to pay the bill, after I paid my deductible AND my out-of-network deductible.  When Dupont called to tell me I still owed them $7,000, I told them I don’t have $7,000 to give you. I told them I would give them $50-a-month forever. The person on the phone said sure, we can put it on a credit card and you can get air miles. I said my family was just told my son has a life sentence, and you think I care about air miles?”

Higgs’ disgust with the insurance industry ended up leading him, incredibly, into to a career in the industry and eventually with USHEALTH Advisors. “I didn’t get into the business to be the number one agent. I got in because I never want anyone to NOT understand what they got when they purchased a policy. It was Sal Spedale who actually got me into the business. He came to my home to sell me a policy with the company. I said, ‘look just give it to me straight.’ He did and he was true to his word. I still own the same policy. When Sal came to our home I said, I hate insurance, I hate insurance, I hate insurance. He said, ‘It’s not bad if you know what you’re getting. If you want to preach about insurance why don’t you get paid to do it?’”

The rest is history. With his father’s work ethic ingrained in him, no matter whatever challenge he faces, Higgs quickly became a rising star with USHEALTH Advisors and now serves others as a Satellite Division Leader. “My number one goal with the people I talk to is just understand what you have. Just understand how it works. And it works really well here. In my opinion this is hands down, bar none, the best suit-your-needs insurance you can get, period.  We are not creating a need, everybody knows they need health insurance. We are offering non-managed care plans, priced right in the marketplace and we do what we say we’ll do. It’s pretty simple. It’s not a tough sale.”

There’s no need to sell Higgs on the beauty and meaning of life as well. He says his greatest joy is his family, Kristin, Aidan and his daughter Hailie, who is just starting to look at her post-high school career, one Jim says will focus on academics because she’s a “very very smart, pretty girl.”

Higgs also understands all about the fragility of life. It’s only been about five years since he lost one of his greatest mentors, his dad, who died at the age of 88. Only two weeks later one of his older brothers, Tommy, suddenly died of a heart attack – at age 51. It was a wake-up call for Higgs and the entire family on how short and unpredictable life can be.

“Personally I think you have to live life while you have the life to live,” says Higgs.  Live it to the fullest because my brother was gone too soon, he was going to do this and do that…and then it all ended. My father-in-law, a successful agent in the insurance business for 20 years, said he was going to work until he was 59 and then buy a house at the shore. He was diagnosed with cancer at 58, and died at 59. You never know what’s in store, so live life while you can live. I try to do just that. The best you can do is try to live with no regrets.”

A few facts of life which are easy to understand.

Until next time thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky