Learn To Say No – Lucas Rodrigues

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” – A quote from every successful self-employed person, ever.

One of the greatest traits of successful entrepreneurs is the ability to say one word. For much of his life, Lucas Rodrigues struggled with that word, and early on in his opportunity at USHEALTH Advisors, Lucas’s inability to express that word almost cost him his career.

That one word? Let’s let Lucas explain.

“What I struggled the most with at the beginning of my career at USHA was learning how to tell people NO,” says Lucas, “how to put myself first and be able to tell people no and what I should focus on in my business and in my career to be able to get to the next level. I’m much better with that now. After being at USHEALTH Advisors for three years, I think that’s the main reason why I was able to finally find success here, working as an agent, kind of being average for three years – and then I realized I needed to change things around and learn how to tell people no.”

Lucas knew his desire to always be available was derailing his ability to grow exponentially at USHA. Saying no to the things that don’t serve you, don’t serve your goals, or your mission – opens the door to saying yes to the things that truly matter.

“I was being a people pleaser,” says Lucas. “I was always trying to please everyone around me but I needed to create financial stability for me and my family. I’m born and was raised until my teen years, in Brazil. In Brazil we have a culture that we kind of just work to live – instead of the culture that we have here in America – that we have to do more in order to be able to find true financial stability. I had to tell other people no. I cannot go to a birthday party because I have to work. I cannot go to a barbecue because I have to stay in and put some action into my business. I have to say no to a lot of things – and say yes to work.”

But saying yes to work wasn’t easy either. Lucas was introduced to USHEALTH Advisors by his cousin who worked out of the Orlando, Florida office, but Lucas and his family were living in Tampa. So while he traveled to Orlando for training, he worked remotely from his home in Tampa. For Lucas, being remote wasn’t making him more productive, it was stifling his growth.

“My whole life was in Tampa, my kids were here, my kids from my previous marriage, so I just went to Orlando, did the training and then for the first few years at USHA I worked remotely out of my Tampa home. And I was still living paycheck to paycheck. I was not doing the most I could possibly do. I got very complacent working, sitting there in my boxers, I felt like I was self-employed, with too much freedom. It was me not taking accountability – and not trying to go to Orlando more often to learn a new system and learn to be more. So I got to a point that I felt like, what am I doing here? I’m three years in, and I see all these people that work in the office making more money, being able to provide for their families – buying cars and houses and some of them becoming leaders. And that’s when, three years in, I called my cousin and I said, “Hey listen, I’m either going to quit and go back to hospitality, or I’m actually going to decide to go in the office and go all out because at first I was not fully bought in.”

The gift of a transfer from Orlando to the Tampa USHA office opened the door for Lucas to work closer to home, albeit, still an hour drive to and from work each day. But now, Lucas was driven to succeed.

“I think I lacked a little bit of confidence,” says Lucas. “I lacked on training because I didn’t get all the training that I see my agents get now. I think another thing was I my accent at first kind of got in the way. I thought that I was a little bit behind because my English is not perfect. But that’s one thing that, once I got in the office here in Tampa and I surrounded myself with people like Max Willett and Brian Fuller and the other power associations I developed, changed me. They taught me you have to try to be the very best version of yourself and push yourself to live that uncomfortable life – and the challenging life – that’s the only way you’re going to grow. Once I started doing better as far as selling, then I started building more confidence and I was able to kind of turn around my whole career.”

“But that only happened after the first three years at USHA, because for the first three years I didn’t work as many hours as I should have. I was taking way too many breaks. I was not working weekends much. I was not learning anything new. I didn’t have the good competition that we have in the office, the healthy competition that sales gives you. When I finally came into the office, I put my pride aside. And then, and I’ll never forget this, I set my wife and my kids down, back then my son was 14, my middle son was 11 and my daughter was a newborn, and I said to both of my boys and my wife, “I know you guys are used to seeing me around, I’m always here, I’m always going to all the birthday parties, all the outings, but it’s time for me to be selfish with my time, but not for me in a selfish way, I’m doing this for you.”

“It was time for us to make something happen here because I wanted to provide my family with a better future. I wanted to be able to put the kids in private school, I wanted them to feel proud of their dad and I didn’t want to go back to hospitality industry. I did that for 12 years. I worked in fine dining places. I ran a kitchen for a couple of years, but I didn’t want to go back to that kind of life and work for someone and be a W-2 employee – I knew there was more to get out of USHA. I saw my cousin and family members being successful here and other people that came with me into this opportunity, but I’m like, it’s time for me to kind of lock in, kind of silence all the noise outside and go all in. And that’s what I did. I came into the office in 2022 and I really, that year, I put everything else aside. It’s kind of weird to say this, but even with my kids, I put everything before them and I locked in and that year and I was able to triple my annual volume in sales and triple my income that year. And then I was asked to become a leader.”

Lucas resisted leadership at first, only wanting to focus on his new personal production levels, having written nearly $1.5 million in personal volume that year when he went all-in. But his leaders persuaded Lucas that he could be the one to set the example for others, to show them the way, and teach them how to be successful.

Lucas finally agreed to give leadership a shot. But just like he found with starting in the insurance business, you have to embrace the suck to get going. Stepping in to teach others has its rewards, but it also comes with a laundry list of new challenges.

For every level, there’s another devil.

“The first six months was a huge challenge,” says Lucas. “I’m not going to lie, many, many times I thought about just walking into Max Willett’s office and tell him, “Hey, I’m ready to step down. It’s not for me.” I was going to just throw in the towel. But I stuck to it. And then after the third quarter that year, and then the fourth quarter, I had a good team – 20 agents, and a couple of agents doing really well – and so I got excited about the small wins for my agents. I saw agents able to leave their parents’ house to get their own apartments, agents buying their new first new car, paying off their credit card debt, and making real money. And my first newbie I ever hired became a top producer, she did $250,000 AV in her first 13 weeks, then $250,00 AV again in her second 13 weeks.”

“So then I’m like, you know what, I can do this. I can help people. And then my team started doing really and that first year we finished number five in the nation, we did almost $10 million AV. And then I ran it back for the second year as a Field Training Agent, which was last year in 2024. That team, we finished number one as an FTA team, we did $18 million plus and we broke the regional FTA record and I was promoted to a Field Sales Leader role and so here we are. A lot has changed for the better.”

Change is inevitable, growth is optional. Lucas grabbed the reigns on growth and he has transformed life for himself and his family, even for his Mom, who, after bringing her children to Brazil many years before, moved back there to live.

“My mom had a cousin that moved to the U.S.  – and this is 40 years ago we’re talking about – and she kept telling my mom, you should come to the U.S. with your kids and bring them here so they can learn a second language. In Brazil, they’re really big into learning English. People have that mentality that once you go experience America and learn the language, it’s going to help you get better jobs in Brazil. So we were like 15 or 16 years old and my mom was basically raising us as a single parent because my dad was kind of in and out of the picture.”

“My dad was a big gambler, actually had a gambling addiction. He’s a good person, a great person, but gambling took the best of him. So, my mom said, “Let’s go to the U.S., let’s go for about a year. You guys can learn a different culture, learn English and we’ll come back and then you guys can think about college and all that.” So when I left Brazil, I never imagined we were going to actually stay here and live here in the United States – and make our lives here. I remember the last time I was saying bye to my dad and I was like, “Oh, I’ll see you next year. I’ll see you in a few months.” But the next thing you know we moved here, for good.”

“I have a twin brother and I have an older brother, about a year older. It was the three boys and my mom and when we moved here we stayed at my aunt’s house, since she was already living here in America. She helped us get on our feet. My mom started working as a nanny. We had no papers at first. My older brother started working at a restaurant as a busboy. My twin brother and I went to high school, it was, I think our freshman year of high school. Then, we eventually got our papers. My mom married an American guy and got her green card. We became citizens four or five years later. So, we moved here with the intent to stay here for a year – and I didn’t go back to Brazil until 2014. So we stayed here for 14 years. I didn’t see my dad for 14 years. I didn’t see a lot of my family members for 14 years.”

“Looking back, it’s crazy how life goes. I never thought we’d end up here in the U.S. Then I had kids and my whole life is here now. I am 40 years old, so I lived 15 years of my life in Brazil and 25 years of my life here in the U.S. So I’m more Americanized now than Brazilian at this point. I have lived here longer than I lived in Brazil.”

And now Lucas knows it wasn’t just coming to America, it’s also finding USHEALTH Advisors. For Lucas, as it is is for many others, it’s the right environment, the right people, the right support, the right heartfelt mission – all adding up to build a foundation and the right mental attitude for Lucas to succeed.

In the right surroundings, with the right people, all that’s left then to be successful, is taking action, massive action.

“I look at myself three or four years ago, and I’m a whole different person now,” Lucas says. “It’s not because of the money, because now I am financially stable. It’s all the struggles. They’re the learning curves. The confidence that I have now learning how to talk to people and learning how to communicate better. That’s one thing that I always struggled with because as I mentioned, I think in the back of my mind, I thought people wouldn’t understand my English. I have kind of a thick accent. But at the end of the day, if I know what I’m talking about, I can talk to anyone on the phone about health insurance and I’m super confident that I’m the specialist, I’m going to lead the call and I’m going to put the person in a better position than I found them – and if I can’t, then I’m going to send them to someone who can help them get what they need.”

But there are not only clients who need health insurance, and need him to lead the way, there’s Lucas’s family, who need him to be someone they can count on as well.

“I think the main thing is be able to provide for my kids,” says Lucas. “To make sure that they’re proud of me. They can look at me and think – my daddy is an immigrant that came to this country with nothing – and he made something help of himself. The main thing is I always like to make sure my kids are proud of me and they can look back at what I have done and say, my dad did it. He went all out and found a way to become successful. He didn’t have much growing up, moved to a whole different country, learned how to speak the language and provided well for us.”

As Lucas has learned, life’s greatest rewards come from giving and giving back. Givers gain. But you have to make sure you are in a place to give, which means working on you so you feel your cup is full, almost overflowing, because you can’t give what you don’t have. Lucas says he has a lot… especially when it comes to doing things right.

“I like to think that I have great integrity,” says Lucas. “I think it goes a long way. Just do the right thing. I always try to lift people up and point them in the right direction. I think that’s the main thing. I think that’s how I would like to be remembered. I tell my agents that I would love to be at your weddings and be able to see your kids grow up and be able to take this relationship that we have and still be in your lives 10, 20, 30 years from now. Right now we live this fast paced life and time goes by super quick, but it’ll be nice in 10 years from now, for us to look back and all be sitting at the table and we’re like, man, we had a good run.”

“But right now I tell my agents this is our time of sacrifice in our lives. This is the time that we have to put things on the back burner and focus on our career and making the money now and then eventually be able to collect the fruits of our labor. I know I’m not there. I tell my agents, some of you guys have been here one year, two years. I’m going on six years and I work more now than I worked at first, because I know that this is still my time of sacrifice and eventually I’m going to be able to slow down and work fewer hours and be able to spend more time with my kids. My daughter’s getting older now, she’s four years old, and she kind of understands I’m not home as much. I don’t get to spend as much time as I want with her.”

“But at the same time, I do live my life on a calendar and when I’m with her, I’m with her and I’m all in. Sunday is my family day. I have Saturday nights which is my time with my wife. Whenever I’m with my wife and my family, I’m present. I’m there spending time with them because I know a lot of people who work less than I do, but whenever they hang out with their kids, they’re on their phones. They’re not really paying attention to their kids. I feel like because I spend a good amount of time away from home, so when I’m with my daughter, I just tell my agents, “Hey guys, you have your other leaders to help you. If I don’t answer the phone, it’s not because I don’t want to help, but it’s because I need to be present with my family. I need to be able to be there for my daughter and be able to give her my time and be all in. And she knows that. “So I’m very intentional with my time now. I don’t waste time doing stuff that doesn’t matter basically. I value my time.”

“The bottom line is right now, I’m still building myself and others. My team is made up of winners, we’re financially stable, we’re good people. We develop, we grow, we’re more mature. I think that’s the main thing. And I think I realized with this job, this career, it’s very much a copy and paste career. I think that at first I looked around and thought all these other people are doing well, they’re successful, but not me, I’m not at their level, so how can I do as well as they do? And then when I came into the office every day, I realized, all I have to do is sit behind someone that’s doing better than I am, and copy and paste whatever they do, make myself better and eventually I’m going to be as successful and earning the money the same we they are. It’s a copy and paste career. You don’t have to be extremely smart, you just have to be adaptable. You have to learn, you have to change. If it’s not working, you have to pivot and execute. I think that’s kind of the main thing, copy and paste and you can be a winner too.”

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky