At the age of only 23, Libby has set the world on fire at USHEALTH Advisors, and it comes to her from the match strike and then the candle lit by her parents when she was very young… and now the warm embers that still burn in Libby to this day.

“I grew up an hour south of Atlanta, in McDonough, Georgia,” says Libby. “I went to a private little Christian school, had only 50 people in my graduating class. My parents were divorced and both got remarried. So I grew up in a blended family. I went back and forth every other week, which really probably established my independence from about two years old. I didn’t have to do everything on my own, but I had to remember a lot of things and do a lot of things independently. And so, I think that has helped me so much where I’m at today, is that I’ve done so much on my own.”

“My parents are also both self-employed. So I’ve seen hard work, I’ve seen the late hours, and what you have to do in order to – I don’t want to say make it – but putting in extra hours, I understand that from them. My dad’s a doctor and he was really big on instilling hard work in me. I didn’t have much handed to me. I had to work for a lot of my stuff. So it developed a lot of character, that’s for sure.”

Character and integrity are what fuel the best-of-the-best at USHEALTH Advisors, and for sure it’s that fuel that drives anyone who’s ever accomplished anything great, anything that other people look at and say, “how is this possible?” It all seems impossible, until someone does it.

From the day Libby walked in the door at USHA, she was set on doing the impossible, because she saw it as attainable… as possible. It can be, if you believe in you.

“One of my main things when I started was to figure out how to work my way up,” says Libby. “My goal in the beginning was to beat Frank Bakirtzis’s record when he joined USHA. So that was a really big thing that I set out to do, and even Frank helped me to do that, and all of my leaders, Ben and Tim and everyone.

So that’s probably, I would say, one of my biggest accomplishments would be beating that record, and then also getting promoted so early to a Field Training Agent. That was super exciting. I really wasn’t expecting it at first when I first got going. But that was obviously my goal. So I was super excited about that part, too.”

What was the impossible record? Frankie B, as they call him, had individually produced just over $700,000 in annual volume of insurance sales in his first 13 weeks at USHEALTH Advisors. Libby ended up producing $780,000 AV in her first 13 weeks. Then she went on to issue more than $ 1 million AV in her first four months at USHA!  Understand at the time of the writing of this article, Libby has been in the business less than seven months.

“I knew nothing when I first came here,” says Libby. “When I say I knew nothing about insurance, I mean I didn’t know what a deductible was before I got this job. I was on my parents’ insurance, never had to deal with it. It was a learning curve at first.”

A learning curve, but Libby is used to curves. After all she grew up playing softball, as a pitcher, no less. Tough pitches, throwing them from the mound and handling them as a batter, come naturally to her. As she’s proven in dramatic fashion, she has no trouble with the curve.

But whether it’s sports or business, both of which are intrinsically intertwined in concept and implementation, you have to rely on your teammates for lasting success. Libby says the team around her has always been there for her, right from the start. As it is for so many, Libby says, starting this was scary.

“My greatest challenge in life so far, is probably me moving here, says Libby.” I actually moved to Nashville (from Atlanta) for this job. I graduated college in May, and I was really lost. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I’m very much a planner, so I’m super OCD about what my next move is, and I really struggled with not knowing what I was going to do.”

“So I got on LinkedIn and just started looking at opportunities, like what I wanted to do, and I had a few different things for USHA pop up. And so, I ended up making the four-hour drive to Nashville one morning and interviewing with them.”

“It was really hard leaving my family. I knew nobody in Nashville when I moved. I didn’t know anything about the company, really, and just took a leap of faith. It felt like it was just something that God had placed on my heart. So I took the leap. I didn’t even have furniture for three months, I mean, like anything. All I did was work and tried to figure it out. It was weird at first. I didn’t have any friends up here. I didn’t have any family. So that was a big struggle.”

“I ended up contracting with Daniel and Shelby Benz. They talked about how close-knit they were and how everything was very family-oriented, which was really what I was wanting and needing moving here alone. Like I said before, I was really nervous to just make the move, I knew I wanted to get away from Georgia, but I really didn’t know where. But it just felt right in the moment. I really liked Daniel and Shelby when I met them. I always joke with Daniel, “Oh, I don’t know if I want to do 1099. My parents always told me not to.” He said, “Oh, well, the only reason you wouldn’t do well here is if you don’t work hard.” I was like, “Oh, well, I work hard.” So I ended up signing right then. It ended up working out and I’m super grateful for it.”

Becoming one of the fastest starters in USHEALTH Advisors history is a testament to Libby’s focus and her desire to live the company’s mission of HOPE and to make the big bet on herself, to take some risks and see what’s possible on the other side.

“I bought all of my non-resident state licenses the second week after I wrote my first deal,” says Libby. “My leaders helped pay for some, but I just went online and tried to figure out how to buy them. I figured the faster that I had everything I needed, the faster I could hit my milestones. So that’s now something that I feel like not only my team, but our whole satellite division’s really good about, is when new people come in, trying to get them up and running with the states, because my whole thing is once you’ve written your first new business there’s no reason you should be doing a transfer to another leader or agent.”

But it wasn’t just investing in her business, Libby says she looked to be different, to stand out from the crowded field of agents.

What makes you different, is what makes you beautiful.

“So Frank was the number one agent in my region when I first started. And so, instead of doing everything Frank did, I obviously took advice from him and all my other leaders, but it was how can I be different and win a sale over him, instead of just being a cookie-cutter replica of him.”

“And so, I think that’s what has really helped me stand out is everybody has a different way to pitch. It’s not just one particular way that works. I think realizing that really early on was super important.”

“And there was the conversation my dad had with me, because I said to him, “Oh my gosh, dad. I’m texting all these people. They don’t want to reply to me.” He said, “You just need to put yourself in their mindset or in their shoes. If you’re getting texted by 50 people, what’s going to make you stand out?” That’s something I really try to tell my team too is, you all are competing against me essentially on a sale, so what makes them want to choose you over me? So, that’s just always something I try to keep in the back of my mind. I think that’s where being genuine and, like I said before, hearing what they actually need instead of just selling them a product. People pay attention to that. That’s how I’ve gotten most of my referrals is just being genuine on the phone and not worrying about make a sale or about the money.”

“It gets time-consuming when you have a lot of clients coming in and you have appointments. I would say mainly it’s how I interact with people on the phone. I don’t want to say I’m not a professional. I am professional on the phone. But I’m not cookie-cutter on the phone. I’ll crack a joke or laugh or … I’m still very much myself. My whole group jokes with me that they can hear me when I get on the phone with my accent or whatever. Just being true to myself has also really helped me, because it’s like you’re talking to your best friend instead of some random salesperson.”

It’s not only the lessons Libby learned from her dad who has been self-employed for much of his life, working as a doctor, but also her mom who has been successful in sales as well. It’s a family focused on service and getting to the heart of the matter.

“My mom always told me,” says Libby, “that the further I got into sales – and I tell my team this, I live by it – is if somebody likes you, they’ll listen to you. If they trust you, they’ll buy from you. And so, I think that’s my big thing when I’m talking to a client is instead of – buy from me, buy from me, buy from me – it’s more of listening to your client, hearing what they need, and tailoring it to so that they trust you and they know that you’re looking out for their best interests and not just for money in your pocket.”

Now that Libby has been super-successful selling on her own as an agent, she was recently promoted to work with a team, to be a leader in her Nashville office, sharing her best practices to help others to be the best.

“So my day-to-day now, really hasn’t changed too much. I now have an assistant to help me delegate appointments booking-wise, just because I’m trying to get my team up and running. My main thing with my agents that I try to do really well is making sure I’m giving them the tools that they need in the beginning to get up and running.”

I feel like everybody’s first focus is they always think it’s money, but I think some people need time or knowledge or education or patience. That’s one thing I try to do really well is figuring out and developing a relationship with people on my team. “How’s your day going?” Saying good morning, having team lunches, or having more substance behind you than just a name and a face on a team. I think you gain a lot more respect that way.”

“Also, I think you just have a way better culture. That’s one of my favorite things about our office that I tell everybody is … I mean obviously the money’s great now, but I love everybody that I work with. I’m best friends with half of the people, and I’ve created a lot of relationships that I’m sure will last a lifetime because of it. And so, I think my other big thing is trying to find ways to make work fun. I do a lot of incentives for my team, and contests and fun things to make it so it doesn’t always feel like work.”

“But I would say work-wise, I mean I try to get to the office about 7:00 am, that’s pretty normal, that’s what I was doing in the beginning. Then I usually go home around 6:00 pm or 7:00, and I still will run leads until 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm. I’m just not staying in the office till all hours of the night. I’m usually making dinner, do laundry, or something, which I’m really glad about. In the beginning, I didn’t really have a work-life balance. So now I’ve tried to transition and realize in order to make it sustainable, I’ve got to have other things in my life that make me happy.”

Libby has also found happiness and a little bit more since coming to Nashville, meeting another leader, Ben Fredericks. “We hit it off from the start and currently are dating,” says Libby. “He’s such an inspiration with how he’s grown his team.”

At it’s core, happiness is an inside-out game. Find the joy from within and share it with others. Libby has brought her light to USHEALTH Advisors and wants to make sure she’s sharing the strategies of her success, and now she’ll also get to share that success with someone special. She says her best friend Lauren just moved to Nashville and is training to be an agent, and perhaps, under Libby’s guidance, the next superstar.

“I would say a big thing about me … well, this isn’t really about me, but how I live my life, whether it’s work or even outside of work, is I’m really big on being a light to others. I think that’s my main thing in my work-life that I also try to strive for. Of course, I’m super proud of everything I’ve done at USHA, but to me, those aren’t the type of things that people remember when you’re gone. They remember who you are and your character and how you treat others.”

“I think that’s where sometimes people get blindsided in this job. I’m competitive and, believe me, I get it, but I think encouraging people and being a light to others in other aspects of your life is really the reason that I also stepped up into leadership. How can I directly impact somebody’s life positively and not just, “Oh, I want to be like Libby,” or, “Oh, I want to produce like Libby.” I think there’s so much more to life than that.”

“And so, being an inspiration to others. Obviously I love to inspire people in my work-life, being how young I am and how fast it’s been going for me. But I’m really big on the belief that as fast as everything can be given to you, it can all be taken away that fast as well. So I think remaining humble and keeping your head down, being positive, and being that light is my main thing.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

My greatest challenge in life so far and accomplishment has been to prove people wrong. Because I’ve always been doubted. I’ve always been told you bit off more than you could swallow. Your visions are so much bigger than you’re supposed to think. You’re thinking outside the box and you won’t be able to do it. For this job, your accent is going to be a hindrance. We don’t think you can sell, don’t waste your time. Sales is just not for you. But none of this is true, because I’ve proved them wrong.”
– Terence Taku

If Terence Taku can do this, you can too. His story should inspire each of us and I’m going to have him share it to you mostly in his own words… since it’s a powerful tribute to the human soul.

First let’s recognize Terence is an incredibly successful new agent and now a leader at USHEALTH Advisors, having worked at USHA for only a few years.

Yet, for the first 22 years of his life, Terence lived on the other side of the planet, in another “world”.

“I was born in a little town called Limbe, Cameroon,” says Terence. It’s in West Africa. Growing up in an African home where there were seven of us, five kids, plus my mom and dad, all seven in a three-bedroom house. We had to sleep on the cement floor in a wooden house. And we didn’t have flushing toilets. We had to use the outside bathroom where you go out there and do it. We didn’t grow up with a lot… we were very poor.”

“I see people, they say they’re poor, but they have a 82-inch TV, and they drive a Cadillac. What poor means back home is you have no shoes. You live in a mud house. You barely know where your next meal is going to come from. There are no street lights; you use the lamp, the kerosene, or the petrol lamp; you use candles, and that is poverty. You don’t have a vehicle. You walk. I would walk miles to the farm. I carry stuff on my head. Back home, we grew vegetables and all that stuff.”

“But that gave me a different perspective than most people. Makes me more appreciative of the little things, like having a roof over my head, having a vehicle; shoot, having three square meals a day. It’s not even about the money. I’m so grateful for the little things that make life worth living.”

Perspective in life is critical, it can be a game-changer, especially when you appreciate where you came from, what you have now and what you could do for others. Terence has seen the light. He’s produced more than $2.5 million in business since coming to USHA as recently as the fall of 2020 and has led his teams to more than $2 million in production as well.

Terence has accomplished all of this with a thick West African accent, having only experience in the oil and gas industries after coming to America ten years ago and then seeing it all slip away when COVID hit in 2020. That’s when got laid off and went looking for a way to make a living.

“So I went job hunting online,” says Terence. “It’s a funny story. This job was one of the 200 jobs that I just clicked for the easy application that got sent out, and Chris Downham, (Division Leader for USHA), called me. I got 10 different calls. I did 12 different appointments with different insurance companies, but Chris called me and talked to me, and when I went and talked to Chris, I felt something genuine about not only the company, but the guy. There wasn’t any sugar coating. There wasn’t any, “Hey, this is a gold mine, and your going to come here, and you’re going to get rich from day one.” It was, “Yes you can get rich, but it’s going to take you to want to get rich.” And Chris was very open about it.”

There’s a funny part too because when Chris was thinking about hiring me, he went to the other leaders and asked, “Hey, what do you think about this guy?” And they were concerned about me, but in a good way. They were like, “Well, we don’t want him to struggle. He has an accent. And man, he dresses well. He put on a suit. He’s all cleaned up, but with his accent, cold calling, and all the stuff man… People may think, ‘Hey he’s from Nigeria trying to scam people.’” And I’ve been told that over the phone. “Hey, you’re in Nigeria trying to scam me for my money.” And Chris called me, he’s like, “Hey, I’m going to give you a shot because I believe in you, not because of your accent, not because of your resume, because I believe in you because I could see the drive in you.” And ever since then… they didn’t tell me this until after a year… they were like, “We weren’t sure about you, man. We’re going to be honest with you. We were not sure about you, but you proved us wrong.”

Proving people wrong… again. It’s become Terence’s calling card. So once he was up and running at USHEALTH Advisors, Terence came out firing, with early success, it seemed like all was working in his favor. Being the baby of his family in West Africa, Terence was ready to be the big boy now, the one who made a big splash in insurance in America.

Except… not so fast.

“So my beginning at the company was like none other,” says Terence. I came in my first week, I submitted $45,000 in annual volume and I issued $40,000 of it. I got a big check. I was like, “Man, this is easy, man. I got this.” I managed to hit my 100k in my 11th week.”

“But after then, I dried out. And with sales, what I always tell my agents is, sales is all in your head. Your mindset is going to determine how the outcome of your day is going to be. So I dried out, and I remember I didn’t submit a deal. I started in October. I got my 100k by the end of November. I remember I blanked the whole time from December 2020 to February 2021, I made $200 bucks. And the first week of February ’21, I went into Chris’s office. I was like, “Hey, man, this is it for me, I am quitting. But Chris was like, “Why?” I’m like, “Because it ain’t for me.” He’s like, “What are your reasons?” I didn’t have a reason. I was just being a quitter.”

“I didn’t have a real reason. There wasn’t a reason. Now, I could have said, “Well, I haven’t been selling any deals, but that’s on me.” So Chris took three hours of his time. Chris is a listener, and he’s a talker too. That’s one good thing about him. He’s a good leader. So three hours of his time, I used two hours to vent, and vent, and vent. I pointed fingers, I blamed the leaders, blamed the sky, blamed the building, blamed everything around me. When I was done, he was like, “Are you done?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “There’s this one thing I’m going to tell you. You are being a victim and not a victor. He gave me a couple of books. A few of the books I still read right now. It is Sell or Be Sold. And then the 10X Rule. And The Making of a Millionaire. Chis said, “Take the weekend off. Read this book. Read it not because I tell you to read it, but read it because you’re looking for a change. Once your mind is programmed to read or do something for a change, you’re going to find a change. But if you’re reading it because I tell you to read it, you’re just going to come back on Monday and still be the old you.”

When you change the way you think, the things you think about change. The rest of Terence’s adventure here is a little long… but it’s one of the best responses in the history of the stories on the USHA blog:

“I went home and… I haven’t been diagnosed with ADHD, but I truly believe I have it because I can’t read something, so instead I got the audio books. I bought the audiobooks and for six months I stopped listening to music. Whenever I got into my vehicle or I had my headset on, all I did was listen to audiobooks. For six months I read probably 15 to 18 books. So I was reading those books. And I got through those first books in a weekend. Grant Cardone was the author of Sell or Be Sold, and he had some really good words, he was really stern. It was like he was speaking right to me. And I remember there’s one thing that struck me in the Sell or be Sold. He was like, “Quit…” Excuse my language, but “Quit being a little bitch and get up and do the damn work. Quit blaming others. If you don’t sell, somebody else is going to sell that person. If you don’t sell, the client is going to sell you, and not buy from you.”

“Once I realized that the fault was mine, it wasn’t anybody else’s, I got a game plan. And I started by saying that I’m going to make this number of dials a day. I’m going to create this number of leads a day, and I’m going to make sure I will not blank, never blank again. I will submit a deal, and I will issue a deal, and I’ll get paid every week.  I’m telling you right now, the second week of February 2021, I had I think $2,200 in issued business. I went from the second week of February to the end of the year issuing almost $1.2 million that year in 2021. I don’t know. It was miraculous. I was in a stratosphere where nobody could stop me. The momentum I did that, other people were like, “You’re too aggressive. You’re going to get burned out.” I mean I was on a different level. It was like a bodybuilder on steroids.”

“My accent did not become an issue, but then I got a lady from Kansas who reported me to the commissioner of health insurance. She said, “Well, he did a screen share. He showed me the product, explained it to me, got my social (security number) and also wanted my banking. But I don’t trust his accent. It looks like he’s not from the United States.” And they sent this complaint to our company. Chris called our head guy that deals with these matters. And I spoke to him, and the guy was like, “Don’t worry, I got you.” She was profiling me because of my accent. I did everything right. The complaint even said it. I did a screen share, I showed her the product, I did everything, but she just didn’t trust my accent.”

“So I always had that uncomfortability that my accent was an issue. But after I got done playing with my mind, detoxing myself, and pushing away those people that were polluting my mind about sales, my accent became a power point, it became my strength. People said to me, “Man, I love your accent. Where are you from, man? I love your accent.” And it got to a point where people didn’t even realize until I’ve closed them already. They’re like, “Dude, you’re just a good sales guy, man. You’re just so firm. Your accent is cool, man.” I use that now as my strength!”

“That’s one thing Grant Cardone says. He says, “People want to work on so much their weakness, but they don’t realize that sometimes what they think is their weakness could be their strength.” So I used that as my strength. And I went ahead and issued almost $1.2 million, even after losing almost two months of 2021. This week made it exactly two years that I have never blanked. And I’ve gotten a check every week to take home to my family since I made a change.”

“It all changed everything about me; my perspective, how I look at stuff, quit blaming people, started doing stuff, what was right, started listening to books. I just changed everything. I remember looking at it, I was like, “Man, this is so easy.” I took 11 weeks to issue $100,000 AV, and I’m issuing $150,000 AV some months now.

So it’s been a great journey, man. Talking about it just gives me chills. Chills just run down my back, because it’s just more about those stuff where if you would’ve told me I’d be where I am right now, I would’ve been like, “Yeah, I believe you because I’m not a quitter, but at the same time, I don’t believe you, because I don’t think I can sell.” But it’s all changed.”

Since that time Terence has more than doubled his business, by buying additional state licenses, utilizing social media and Facebook groups, LinkedIn and referrals, helping the clients to truly get what they want so he can get what he wants.

“Forty-percent of my business is referrals,” says Terrence. “When I sign someone up, and they get approved, we do a policy review and I do not let them get off the phone without telling them,” Hey, if you send anyone to me, and they get approved on my plan, you will get a $100 referral bonus sent by me,” and I will put in for another one from the company. Those referrals have doubled by business.”

What has also doubled for Terence is not just business, but his love life… since he is now part of a couple… getting married to his wife, Melissa in 2020.

“If you see a great man, there’s a greater woman behind him. I think my wife is a greater woman, and I’m so proud of her. I don’t know where I would be with this job without my wife. She’s so supportive. When I told her about Kansas City, (just before this story Terence and his wife moved from Oklahoma City to Kansas City to open another USHA office), that woman literally told me, “I will support your dream because it’s always been what is good for our family.” She’s been awesome, man.”

The love will expand again soon when Terence brings his mother and his son to the states, a son he has never met in person, from another relationship he had back in Cameroon. It’s a moment both he and his new wife are eagerly anticipating.

“We’ve talked over the phone. We’ve doing done video calls,” says Terence, but I’ve not really seen my son, touched, my son. So it’s going to be a really emotional feeling when I see him I’m going to be an emotional wreck because… I love him, man. He’s well, he’s been taken care of. And Melissa has been supporting me on doing this. She’s been bugging me, and bugging me and it makes me want to do it even more because it’s rare to see a stepmom that really wants to at least love on some other child that is not hers. But she really embraces my son like he was hers. I’m blessed.”

Terence is blessed, not stressed and ready to give back for all that he’s been given and for all the appreciation he has from where he came from to where he is today, living in what he says is the best place in the world.

“I really, really love it here,” says Terence. “I always tell people, “This is the greatest country in the whole wide world,” believe it or not. America is not perfect, but America is the greatest country in the whole world because this is the only country where you could come here, be a good citizen, be consistent and be hardworking, and you could live, and have the American dream. This is the only country. I have families in Europe and in Canada. They all want to come here because it’s tough over there. If you don’t have a Master’s Degree, you cannot even make 100,000 pounds in Europe or 100,000 euro. But people that are high school graduates in the United States, that are just consistent and hardworking, they can make seven figures just by working hard.”

“We have our flaws, but I wouldn’t trade the United States for any other country. I went and became a US citizen, because I’m so proud and I wanted to be a citizen. I wanted to represent this nation to the fullest. I wanted to pledge to this nation because it’s given me so much. And it’s given a lot of other people so much. But people tend not to be more appreciative of what we have. There’s so much we’ve been blessed with over here.”

To be given much, it’s your moral responsibility to give back and Terence says this is all he wants to do. To do all he can, with all he has been given. He says he believes in the mission and the company’s President and CEO, Troy McQuagge.

Troy said it best,” says Terence. “If you are not helping other people, these agents coming in, seeing this as the best opportunity in the whole United States, then you’re doing it wrong. He said, “It is left up to us to help someone change their lives, turn their dreams into reality.”

“That’s what I want do to, who I want to be… because I will always remember Chris Downham as taking me out of the grave; my mindset, picking me up, and now this is where I am. That is how I want to be remembered. I want to impact so many lives that when they think about me, it’s not about my production. Those are just numbers. When they remember me, they’re going to remember the guy that was so selfless that gave it all, that was there for them, that never turned them down, that picked them up, that always listened to them.”

“I want to change the world.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

“Your purpose and your why has to be a lot bigger than your paycheck.” – Chad Douglas

If you’re going to find your place at USHEALTH Advisors and create something meaningful in your life, then you need to walk in the door with one of the tools of the trade you already have inside you, but too many never stop to think about… a little faith.

A little faith, and a LOT of hard work. For great success comes with a price… sacrifice.

Just ask Chad Douglas. Chad is a Field Training Agent in Tampa, Florida. He is one of the most successful agents in the company these past few years and Chad will tell you like it is.

“If you want to have what I have, you have to do what I do,” says Chad. “I’m in the office every day, 7:30 am, until as late as I need to be most Saturdays and some Sundays. It depends on how many new agents I have. I like to lead from the front. So if I have a big class of new agents and I’m telling them to work the weekends and they show up on the weekend, I would want my leader to be there for support. I don’t want any resentment, for them to be able to build resentment towards me. There’s no room for excuses. Typically if I have a big class of agents, I’ll be there on Sunday with them too. I’m right there next to them, but yeah, I probably put in at least 70-to-80 hours a week.”

It bears repeating, do what Chad does and you can have what he has. And Chad has a lot.

“I’m very straightforward and black and white with the agents. I don’t fluff anything. When I interview people, I’m like, hey listen, I’m not the guy that’s trying to sell you from the pitch you heard in that other room just before. This is what it is. You either want to do this or you don’t. Yes or no, which one is it? Well, you’re not sure… no, it’s yes or no, which one is it? Cause when you get on my team, and I really believe my team and the camaraderie in my team is second to none, you’re going to earn it. I think it just piggybacks off of my personality and the transparency that I have. I think people believe and trust in what I do and what I say.  You have to put as much as you possibly can in this for it to work, and it will if you work.”

Chad’s wife, Catherine Koclanes, is in agreement. Catherine works at USHA as well, as an agent on Chad’s team, and now, perhaps more importantly, in the other part of Chad’s life, as his new bride. The couple got married on October 29th, 2022 and have formed a partnership, not just in love, but in synergy about what they believe it takes to be a successful independent contractor at USHEALTH Advisors.

“It was me watching Chad’s success and seeing what was going on,” says Catherine. “Obviously I was a skeptic as well, just going online, reading reviews. Some people didn’t make it here, not everyone makes it. I’ve obviously learned that it’s not for everybody, it’s for the right type of person who’s willing to put in the work and willing to wait and watch the success, because it doesn’t happen overnight. It was me watching Chad, he started off a little bit rocky in the first few weeks, as do so many. But once he really hit the ground running, I just saw how much, number one, he loved what he did and number two, what the opportunity was and then I also knew what it was going to take some time. But I was able to see what it’s going to take to be successful.”

“I knew I had to get outside of my 40- hour-work week life and having weekends off and paid-time-off and that was my fear, obviously, it’s commission based. I was afraid of that. But it worked for Chad and so I basically said if it worked for him and just like he said, if he can do it, I can do it. If these other people I’ve met can do it, I can do it too.”

And Catherine and Chad are doing it, as a great role models for so many at USHA. To date, Chad has issued nearly $3.7 million in personal insurance applications (he only got going in August of 2020) and his team has produced more than $7 million in business. Catherine, starting her career after Chad, has issued nearly $2 million in personal business. That’s leading by example and doing so by doing what the best among us do – sharing the lessons and scars of the past so that others can benefit from the adversity you have experienced – and come back from to tell your tale.

Let’s face it, life is not a zero-sum game. It owes us nothing, and things just happen the way they do. Sometimes they’re fair and everything makes sense; sometimes they’re so unfair we question everything. The goal is to have some guidance from a great leader and then answer your own questions with the cure-all… action!

“I’ve gone through it,” says Chad. “I’ve put myself through a lot of sh*t in the past. If someone like me can do what I do on a day-to-day basis and have the results that I have, and believe me I had messed up and goofed off most of my life, but I made it happen here. I’m surprised that I came out alive, to be honest with you. I’m surprised I graduated school. I got lucky. It’s only by the grace of God that I am where I am now. But if I can do that, I always tell people, if I can do this, and literally this is me, because I know you – someone who is probably smarter than I am – if I can do this, you can do this too.”

Chad says there’s no secret to success, but it is about battling back.

“In the midst of adversity and challenge and everything else,” says Chad, “put everything you have into it. Go home at night, look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself that question, did I do all that I could do today? And if that answer is no, then there’s only one person to blame and it’s you. Come back tomorrow and let’s change that because ultimately life’s made up of the decisions and choices that we make. At the end of the day it’s you. But take pride in everything that you do. Don’t stop. Take responsibility for your actions. Do what you’ve got to do and just face it head on. I could go on and on about these types of conversations to be honest with you. But yeah, just to keep it simple, take pride in everything that you do and don’t stop. Just do it.”

Catherine has her own philosophy and opinions on why she’s here at USHA and what this all means to her. After all, everyone has a story.

“Honestly, this opportunity would be my greatest achievement,” says Catherine. “I think it just goes back to where I came from. I’m one of six kids. I definitely wasn’t destined to do much in life based on my circumstances. The first accomplishment was actually just getting into college and graduating college. That was a big achievement for our family. When I was a teenager I went to a residential education program, which pretty much was for underprivileged youth. You volunteered to go there and if you went there, they’d pay for your college education. It’s called the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranch. I was 13 when I started there and it was a tough, structured place to help with tutoring and education.”

“I had a story written about me from my time at the youth ranch, the title of the story was, Unlimited Potential. I think that anyone is capable of doing anything, doesn’t matter what their circumstances are, doesn’t matter if they came from a big family, low income, or every obstacle stacked against them, because there were a lot of obstacles stacked against me, a lot of different things. But I came out on top because I always had a positive outlook on life. I never let these things inhibit me from success.”

“A lot of people let those things affect their growth and tell themselves they can’t do it, or that they can never be successful. I think that you just have to always think positively and no matter what your circumstances are, you can do whatever you want to do and not only change your life, but people’s lives around you. I believe you have to stay positive and motivated and anyone can change their circumstances.”

While Catherine developed the habit of a positive mindset, Chad says his experience at USHEALTH Advisors, has led to a  transition in his own mind – and now in his business – so that helping and serving become bigger than just getting a paycheck. For Chad it’s a shift in awareness and witnessing the results of true service.

“So being able to give back, I guess in a way, or have an influence on people has now become my motivating factor,” says Chad. “When I started this, it was very selfish. I wanted what I wanted. I wanted to make a million dollars, I wanted to do this for me, I wanted to do this for so many other reasons. At some point this year, growing the team, I don’t know what happened, but it was some natural shift in my mental state, where it became less about me and more about the people around me. I give back a lot to the team. I’m talking not just time, but money and resources. I make a lot of money, but I give a whole lot of that back.”

“I do believe if you don’t think money could buy happiness, you aren’t giving enough of it away. Just giving back and seeing the new agents, despite their circumstances, watch them succeed, is magic. I have an agent on my team that in the beginning lived in his truck in the parking lot. He bought a gym membership at our office so he didn’t have to drive the 45 minutes back home and then drive back here in the morning. And to see him get a big paycheck last week and to make good money, consistently every week now, that’s what drives me.”

“Or to see a kid on my team from California, I literally I gave him my old pair of shoes because his shoes were in such bad shape when he first started. Then he and his brother got held up gunpoint their third week in this business and the gunman took everything, the clothes they had in their bags and their computer. I was able to buy them new laptops and get them started again. And just seeing where they’re at now, thriving, is like a miracle. I could go on and on with stories like this. So at some point there was a shift where it became less about me and more about positively, indirectly affecting the people around me. That’s really what pushes me now. But I think it all started with, hey if you do something, do it and take pride in it, that’s a big lesson I learned from my mother.”

Chad continues: “There’s this story I always like to tell. I was really young, and I had to do chores growing up and my mom would pay me for them. When I first started, she paid me like $6 a week. And then the next year, $7 and then $8. And when I got in high school it was like 20 bucks. Anyway, I remember being really young, and she told me to go clean the bathroom. There was this particular wall in the bathroom she wanted me to clean. I go in there and take a look. So mind you, I like to take shortcuts, I like to get things done, but just a little bit, with the least amount of effort. I start to clean it and she comes in and checks my work. She wasn’t happy.”

She scolded me and she said, Chad, whenever you do something in life, you must take pride in it. I never forgot that, it has stuck with me. When she came here to visit for our wedding, we would talk about me as a kid and how I’ve always been a perfectionist. So whenever I do something, I always want to be the best at it. I think that’s probably a fault as well, because sometimes I sacrifice things around me to do it. But I think that was from her lesson, and I’ve carried that with me forever. Whenever you do something, take pride in it.”

Both Chad and Catherine are very proud of what they have built and continue to build here at USHEALTH Advisors. Their recent matrimony, leading to harmony and synchronicity, in how they are leading from a position of being the best-of-the-best at this great American company. As Chad and Catherine now go hand-in-hand into the future and face life together as husband and wife, they are sharing, holding the hands of others and inspiring those around them. It’s why we are here, to see what all we can do, with all we have been given.

“My big piece of advice is just don’t give up,” says Catherine. “I see so many people who come in the doors at USHEALTH Advisors and  the beginning is the hardest part. Transitioning into this opportunity, learning a new product, having a new schedule, it’s a lot of hours, it’s a lot of knowledge, it’s all new and it can be a little tricky in the beginning. The biggest thing is you finally get your first new business and then sometimes it’s not approved. The insurance company requests doctor’s information, or the application gets declined, it’s all part of  the game. And people get so caught up in that and I think a lot of people give up, they don’t give it enough time. My biggest thing is just give it more time. It takes everyone a different amount of time to be successful.”

“I see people give up too soon and I think, you would’ve made such a great agent. This could have really changed your life. But they’re comparing themselves to somebody else who started the same day as they did, who already experienced early success. My piece of advice is just to give it enough time because it’s really not rocket science, it really isn’t. It just takes hard work. You have to be a good person. You don’t even need to be the smartest person in the room. You don’t need a college degree, you don’t need a lot to be able to do this. You just need to understand the product, work hard, be a trusting person, and trust the process.”

Both Chad and Catherine believe you have to keep going, just like the name of Chad’s FTA team, Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop.

And to add one more piece of advice: Don’t Stop.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky

“Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.” – Unknown

Feel like quitting? Feel like giving up? Feel like it will never work?

Stop feeling and just get to work.

Ennku Tafara is a walking, talking testament to the spirit of perseverance, defying the odds, beating the obstacles, and never giving up.

Ennku graduated from college in December 2019 and started applying for work in the field for which he studied, psychology. But the opportunities he saw out  in the marketplace made him feel like he was literally, going crazy.

“A bachelor’s degree in psychology does not really do much for you,” says Ennku. “I had one of two options. I had been in school for pretty much my whole life, 15 or 16 years. So I kind of looked at it and I was like, “Okay, well, I can continue with education and go get my master’s, or I can find some employment.”

“Well, a lot of the employment opportunities that I was applying for at the time, psychology degree, four years, realistically you’re looking at a human resources position. You’re looking at $20,000 to $40,000 a year. I knew where I lived I was going to need more, so I started applying for a lot of things.”

“I grew up in Vegas. I was born in New Jersey, moved out here to Vegas when I was five.”

“And so most of what I know is from Vegas and the Vegas hustle. And so I clicked the random apply button. Someone contacts me back and says, “Hey, we’d like to have you come in for a group interview.” I didn’t know what it was. It said something about a sales position. I had never done sales before. I didn’t really know what it was, but I had a few people, like my brother, and I had a few other friends that were pushing me to try and do what I call pressure sales, where you sit at a little kiosk, you’re selling little headphones in the malls. It’s a hustle.”

“I didn’t want to do that because it didn’t really sit right with me, because you’re really just trying to get as much from them as possible, and the product itself wasn’t the best. However, I wanted to try some sales because I know sales was always that thing that helps grow you overall as a person, not just with monetary gain, because I was never really that type of person, but to help me grow and help with things like confidence and self-image.”

Ennku took the leap of faith and contracted with USHEALTH Advisors, saying he really didn’t know exactly what he would be doing and so when he went home to tell his parents about this new opportunity, they were less than thrilled.

“My parents are from Ethiopia, so a lot of what they know and their thought processes are because of  where they grew up. So for them, I come home, I tell them I got a one-hundred percent commission job. Let’s just say they weren’t the most excited, right? I’m sitting there and telling them, “Yeah, I saw some checks, younger people, like myself, doing really well. And they’re like, “What do you think that you just found? This is a scam. Don’t do this. Go back to school.”

“It was interesting. It was at the point where no one was really like, “Hey, you should try this.” It was one of those times where I always wanted to try something and not give up when it got difficult. I felt like a lot of times in my life that’s something that I consistently did. I said, “Let me just put my all into it and see what comes out of it, because realistically, at the end of the day, I can always go back to school.”

If you only ever do the things that are easy, life is hard. But do the hard things and life can be easy. Yet Ennku had no idea how hard it was going to get.

“It took me four tries to pass the state licensing exam, then within about a week, right as I’m about to start, Covid shuts everything down, so now we’re training on Zoom, and we’re expected to be on there at 5 am, since it’s 8 am on the east coast when you can start making calls to people. But Zoom trainings were tough. When we finally get back into offices I haven’t made much money at all.”

“But I was there 5:00 AM on the dot, usually didn’t leave until about eight o’clock, or nine o’clock in the evening. And that was not four days a week, not five, that was seven days a week. It just got to the point where when you do something a certain amount of times it becomes a habit. For me it was like, what else am I going to do? I didn’t really know anything else.”

Three weeks after getting back into the office, Ennku was on his way to work when he was part of a four-car collision, where the lead car blew a tire and the ripple effect caused the three other cars to crash as well, including Ennku’s. He was ok, though he had significant exterior damage and interior, because his air bags deployed.

“We had just gotten back into the offices, I haven’t made money in three weeks, working over a hundred hours, crashed my car, and don’t really know what I’m going to do when I get home. This is it for me. And I still tell the story to this day, and it’s crazy how this works out, another agent who had started with me as well happens to come driving along and offers me a ride. He could tell I wasn’t feeling good about things at all, but as we’re walking back to his car, he points to a homeless guy under the bridge and he says, “That’s actually rock bottom for you. Whatever you think right now is really not as bad as it’s made out to be.” So I took that, I went home, talked to my dad, got a rental car and got back into the office.”

Not long after the car accident, Ennku got a call one day from his brother about a good friend they both knew.

(Ennku’s friend in the orange jacket)

“Our friend rented ATVs. And unfortunately he got into an accident, and died, at the age of 23. That’s what my brother was calling to let me know. At first I thought it was a joke, I couldn’t believe it. It was hard to wrap my head around and I guess it was just like that saying, everything happens for a reason. I was on my way to trying to hit my $100,000 milestone in the first 13 weeks of production at USHA. For a bit I didn’t care anymore, but then I used it as motivation and hit the milestone, by the skin of my teeth, issuing $101,000 in annual volume. For many it might be a small milestone, but it gave me hope to look around and say, okay, maybe I can do this, right?

But fighting back after the car crash that nearly derailed his early career, the loss of his friend that hurt his heart, and still hitting an important production milestone, even all of this was not the turning point of Ennku’s time here at USHA.

Still in his first six months with the company, Ennku got to experience the start of open enrollment in November, the best stretch of time each year at USHEALTH Advisors, thought it wasn’t the best for him.

“Going into the first week of open enrollment, I’m watching people write a lot of business, helping a ton of people. And I go into it and I believe I had two applications, both of them got declined, lucky me. And I made nothing. I made absolutely nothing. So as soon as I thought I was getting somewhere after hitting my milestones, making progress, it was like, nope, come on back, come on back. There were just more growing pains, more to learn, humbling.”

But heading deeper into the month, and closer to Thanksgiving, Ennku found his real motivation. For some reason life seems to bring us to our knees, so we can prove that we can rise up again.

“My dad, who I was living with, has always had health related problems. But he is always been in and out of the hospital. It was kind of like a recurring thing. He had a heart attack back in January of 2020, but also kidney problems, and neurological problems. But he was still functional. One day he complains that his chest was aching and he goes into the ER, so they put him in intensive care. And this was during the time where the ICU rates were skyrocketing because of Covid, so we couldn’t go see him. I spoke to my dad on Thanksgiving and he sounded normal. Thankfully, a few weeks went by and we’re like, all right, at least we haven’t gotten that call yet.”

“The first week of December they put my dad on a ventilator, which means things aren’t good. Because of Covid restrictions my family and I are fighting to see who can see him and who can’t. On December 8th, they take him off the ventilator. December 9th he passes away. And that for me, I mean the entire time frame between November 1st and December 15th, which was open enrollment at that time, my first open enrollment, I still never even left the office for any extended period of time. And I don’t say that to say I don’t have emotions, it was to say that I knew the old me would have crumbled, and not done anything, just given up.”

“However one thing that I was able to do, because of the habits I built in this business, was to keep going. It’s similar to when people in sports lose a significant other, they lose someone close to them and they still get right back up and the first thing they do is go out and play the game. It’s just something to get your mind off of it. And that’s all that I was doing. So that last week of open enrollment was probably the turning point in my career and my life, because that was, still to this day, the best week that I have had in my career at USHA. I believe I wrote like $101,000 in volume the week my dad died, and issued $82,000 of it and got a really good check that week. Honestly, looking back on it, I don’t know how I did it.”

Sometimes you don’t have to know, you just have to… do. It’s in the doing that we accomplish things we never thought possible, despite the obstacles, the setbacks, the soul-crushing defeats and losses. If you can find a way to keep doing, you’ll keep going and that will make all the difference. We can’t forget it’s the ones we look at as crazy, who change the world.

Today, Ennku has issued nearly $2-and-a-half million in personal business and he is showing the way as a leader, serving as a Field Sales Leader for USHEALTH Advisors and leading his team to more than $5 million in production!

Starting his career in the early days of Covid, wrecking his car, the untimely passing of a great friend, then his father’s death, all in Ennku’s first ten months as an USHA agent… and yet, here he stands, stronger than ever and on a career path toward greatness.

It’s proof that surviving our darkest moments, lights a path for others to follow.

Ennku sums it all up: “It got to a point where I was like, look, no matter what happens, this is what I need to do. And as you focus on one thing, everything else, all the distractions, seem like a blur to you, right? For me, just when it might not seem way too hard, whether it’s this career, or whether it’s anything that you’re doing in life, when you feel like it might not be worth it, when you feel like you want to give up, keep going… because you don’t know how close you are to actually accomplishing what it is you truly want.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsk

Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. – Mitch Albom, Author

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. How many times have you said that out loud or in your head?

Brian Fuller is no different. Headed, for one thing, Brian ended up somewhere else. Though sometimes you think it’s the wrong path, somehow the universe conspires on your behalf.

“Right out of school in Illinois, I got my finance degree with the intent to be a financial advisor,” says Brian. “But then I moved to Florida because my parents were like, “You’ve graduated. We’re moving down to Florida. You can come if you want.” So I started my process for about a year of getting my 215 (health and life license), my series-66, and my series-7. So I got all those licenses. And then as soon I was able to transact business and write, COVID hit. It was the same month, March of 2020, that the virus hit hard and the markets tanked.”

No one was investing, people were hoarding cash and Brian needed to pivot. Fortunately, as people were fleeing the market, and Brian was searching for another place to go, someone special stepped into his life.

“So I met a girl, met a gem,” says Brian, “Amy, who’s now my fiance’ and told me about this company, USHEALTH Advisors. Reid Demyan, (USHA Satellite Sales Leader), was her best friend’s boyfriend. And she said, “Well you got a health and life license. Why don’t you try this right now ?” I was so against it because I didn’t want to talk to people on the phone. It’s one of my least favorite things to do. I’m an introvert. It took me a long time to open up and build confidence on the phone. So I thought it was going to be a very temporary thing, and it’s translated into something pretty crazy now.”

Crazy, is an understatement. Brian started with USHEALTH Advisors in August of 2020 and by 2021, his first full year in the business, Brian topped the charts, as the #1 Personal Producer at USHA. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Brian set a new record with more than $4 million in personal production in a single year. To date, he has produced more than $7 million in issued business. Brian may not be financially advising anyone as he planned, but he’s creating a financial fortress for himself and his family, and for that, Brian is extremely proud.

“My biggest accomplishment in life is being the first six-figure earner in my family. That would be the biggest accomplishment for sure, coming from a lower-middle-class upbringing. It’s kind of my driving factor with all this, of busting through that middle-class and being able to do stuff or provide for my family the things that I wasn’t able to be provided. Not worrying about money and living the life that I wish I could always have lived.”

When we see success, especially quickly, we sometimes think the person has a charmed life, few obstacles, and nothing standing in their way, that’s why they were able to do what they did, it was just luck and God’s grace. Yet, that’s rarely the case, it’s not a favorable wind, it’s the grind, the grit, and the ability to overcome the challenges before you.

Life never stops, only you do, giving in to the resistance in front of you. We all face resistance, the key is to keep moving forward.

“During my first 13 weeks at USHA, my dad was going downhill,” says Brian. “My dad had kidney failure for about eight years and had been on the transplant list for all that time. During my first quarter at the company, even when I set the record in personal production for our region, I was trying to be there for my dad because he was waiting for a kidney transplant. He finally got it and it was the happiest day of my life, because I knew it would change his life.”

Culton-Fuller Family:
The Early Years

But the happiness was short-lived… although the transplant was a success, the doctors quickly realized the kidney had polio on it.

“They didn’t check out the kidney before putting it in my dad,” says Brian. “So now my dad had a kidney, but had polio, he couldn’t walk. It was crazy. So they had to do blood transfusions for a week straight. And there was a very, very low chance of survival. Polio basically killed the kidney, but the doctors had to kill the polio, so then my dad was back to square one again with no kidney, but he refused to go back on dialysis.”

“I would try to be with my dad…but it was during the intense COVID time too, so you couldn’t even go see him. They wouldn’t let anybody in the room. So I just woke up in constant fear thinking, is this my last day with my father? And I mean, that was huge, all happening as I was starting with USHA and trying to set a record. My dad wanted me to keep going, to not stop and not worry about him and make a life for myself. He’s still here with me today, but I believe it’s because of all the success that I’ve created for myself, and that’s the driving factor, which kept him alive the whole time – watching me do what I do. So that was big.”

Inspiration and healing, all coming together. And now the family is looking at getting together.

“It’s been almost two years since that episode,” says Brian, “and my dad’s still not on dialysis. He still has the same situation with the kidneys, but he’s pretty healthy. His blood work is getting better. His kidney’s getting better. And we’re planning on trying to get him moved down here to Florida, hopefully, this year, or if not, early next year, to get him down here by us. But yeah, he’s doing very well now.”

Part of the dichotomy of life is that while one area might be a struggle for you, you can still excel in the other, if you simply focus on the task at hand. While Brian’s dad was trying to overcome his health challenges, Brian remained focused on the work in front of him, trying to build a career at USHA. And just like anything else you do for the first time, it wasn’t easy. You have to practice to make permanence.

“Man, at first it was rough,” says Brian. “The first three weeks, it was just…wow. And I started with Chad Douglas, another top producer, and we kept going back and forth and he had all the experience. And I think in the first week he set four appointments. I had none. I was just stuck in my head. The biggest problem was called reluctance. I would call and right before someone would pick up, I would hang up because I was afraid that they were going to know more than me, and I kept making excuses of, “Oh, the leads suck,” or “this sucks,” or everything, whatever. And it got to about three weeks into it and one night I came home and I was super irritated. I was over it. I was like, “I’m done with this. I don’t know why. I can’t do this cause I’ve been good at everything else in life so far. Why can’t I figure this one thing out?”

“And it was really just lack of effort. My fiance’, Amy, (still Brian’s girlfriend at the time), convinced me to come back and be more positive for one day  – give it my all to see if it was the system, or if it was just me and yeah, that was the day I got my first appointment, it was when I came in with a clear head and after I got the taste of one, I was like, “Wow, this is really how easy it is.” It wasn’t as difficult as I was making it seem. And then I got my first new business issued right after that and made a little less than $2000 a week, and it just kept getting better and better and easier and easier.”

As with anything in life, while tough at first, Brian gets to share his story with others he is helping to bring into the USHA opportunity. The scars matter. Each one, teach one.

“Now I love it,” says Brian. “But that confidence was the biggest battle – to believe in me and to not care what the other people thought on the other side of the phone. I was sitting next to Max Willett (Brian’s Field Sales Leader). So he was always listening to me talk. And I was like, “Man, I can’t screw this up. I can’t say something stupid next to him.” And that made me hold back a lot, but we all know that everybody’s not stupid in the beginning. So now it’s translating that out when I’m training my agents. I’m like,” I know what you’re thinking. And know what you’re about to go through, but don’t do that to yourself.” And it’s allowing my team to prosper now and grow very quickly because I can relate to them in that regard.”

We all look for the secret, the quick trick, the easy fix to do what Brian has accomplished in such a short time. But it’s non-existent, if you’re hungry for success it comes down to the grind, the mind, and in Brian’s case, the body… and the big “D”.. discipline.

“The secret is there is no secret, it’s all about massive, massive action,” says Brian. “I was prepping for something else while going through the thing with my dad, and while being in my first 13 weeks at USHA. I was prepping for a body-building show too, because I was like, “Why not? Why not do everything? Completely stress me out?” So I was getting up to the point where I was doing half an hour of cardio in the morning. I would work out after work, at nine o’clock, and then do an hour of cardio after. After I worked out and during those hours of cardio, I would go on Instagram and look up, #self-employed, look up small business owners, look up anybody in the states that I purchased, which is only 12 states that I could afford at the time. And I was just direct-messaging them saying, “Hey, this is what I do. This is how I help people.”

“And then while I was in the office, I was dialing five, six hundred dials a day and just keeping my head down. So I was doing a lot of prospecting and self-marketing outside of the calls, using my social media outreach because I had 14,000 followers and built up a lot of body-building followers. So I was able to connect with a lot of personal trainers, online coaches, real estate professionals, and stuff like that through Instagram. So I was setting up appointments from that. I was doing my thing on the dialer, trying to sell as many leads there. So it was just massive action, and it was every day. It was the weekends. I wanted it so bad that I just got addicted to it. And it fits right in my schedule. I mean, I’d eat my meals at certain times. I’d dial at certain times. I had on a schedule to DM Instagram certain times, it was just all so set on a schedule and that made it easier.”

A big part of life is work, but it can’t be work just for work’s sake. There has to be more for you to get out of bed and put in the time and effort that Brian has – there has to be a driving force, a cause, a mission, something bigger than you.

“The biggest driver is honestly just financial freedom,” says Brian. “Knowing this is my only way to bring my family out of this, where we’ve been our whole lives. Living how we do now, I mean, we live very, very… conservatively. People might still think I’m broke right now by how I spend my money,” he laughs, “and I’m okay with that. But it’s changed our lives and it’s made everything so much easier, our relationship so much better. And I just want to have that for the rest of my life. I’m focused on generational wealth, not just for myself, but every generation after me, to not have to worry about money, and this is what’s going to get me there.”

And while focused on financial freedom, Brian now has another goal, replicating that same for others. Great leaders pivot from personal to purpose – helping others to share in the same success they have experienced.

Brian says the simple method is to lead the way.

“So many people doubted me,” Brian says. “They didn’t think I was going to be a great leader because I was a top producer and I only focused on producing and I didn’t help a ton of people around me because I was in personal production mode. I wanted to break the USHEALTH Advisors’ producer record. I wanted to be number one. I didn’t have time to help other people at that time. But I told everybody when it comes time when I need to shift that focus, you bet I’ll be the best leader there is. And obviously, talk is cheap. So people didn’t believe it. But now I’m solidifying that. And I got a top five FTA team in the country right now with eight agents after having nothing to start with at the beginning of the year.”

“I take pride in having a very, very good culture, where everybody helps everybody. Just leading from the front and being in the office all day, late into the evening, and on the weekends. You’ll see that because I show up, my agents stay at night longer and they work harder and they work later and they make more money themselves. I mean last week, my top five agents on my team, not including me, all made over $5,000 that week, and two of them are still in their first 13 weeks. So that success is driving me even more now for them.”

Now, the “them”, not only includes recruits but family members as well. Brian’s cousin, Austin Blasko has joined USHA. Brian’s stepfather, who also deals with his own kidney issues, and who Brian says is as much a father to him as his own, is helping Brian to prospect and build the business. His fiance’ Amy, helps run the show, and Brian expects he and Amy will really be on the same “team” in their personal lives as well, with a wedding happening late next year or early 2024.

Brian says the present brings him peace and the future is unfolding in ways he says he never could have expected. So what more is there to do?

“What stands out very clearly to me is that I’m just a normal person. I’m just an average guy. No huge, crazy background, not a background of money or anything or experience to do any of this. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, right? But when you have talent and you work hard, you’re going to beat everybody. I’m not anybody special. Anybody could probably do what I’m doing if they build the system, put it in place as I have, really push themselves, put the time in –  and put their head down for you a couple of years – just to create a future that you can never imagine.

“So my biggest takeaway so far is the fact that, yeah, anyone can do this.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky