OverWork – Erica Luciano

Erica Luciano grew up in Buffalo, New York, and if you ask her what the common thread is between Buffalo and Nashville, Tennessee, where she now calls home, Erica will tell you it’s an easy answer.

It’s three words: Country music, God and Beer.

If that sounds like an excellent triple threat, it probably can’t hurt to embrace all three if you are building an insurance business in the Southwest, the Northeast, or in any place, for that matter. If you can focus on the music of your heart, work hard, have a little faith, and maybe toss back a cold one, or two (you might need that in sales :)), you can probably carve out a pretty good career by helping other people every day.

Erica came to Nashville in 2019 and found her way to USHEALTH Advisors in April 2021. For the past three years, she’s been strumming that six string in her heart as one of the most consistent agents in the company. As a Field Training Agent, Erica’s team is ranked in the top 25 with USHA this year, with more than $5 million in production, and Erica alone has produced more than $2 million in individual career sales.

Unlike many others, Erica says she never hesitated in her decision to take the leap of faith into the unknown waters of a commission-only-based opportunity.

“I remember seeing the ad for this job on a job board or whatever else I was using at the time,” says Erica. “I got the callback from USHA while I was at my other job, and I’m not kidding, I left on my lunch break. It was probably the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever done, but I left on my lunch break and did not go back. I sent the other job a text essentially saying that I wasn’t coming back and I started working at the gold building (USHA has a gold and a black building in Nashville), the next day, and then I had to wait to get my test and all the licensing done, but I did all my studying in the office. I just committed to being here already, which was kind of great because they welcomed me with open arms immediately. It wasn’t like a prove yourself mentality or anything like that. I think they saw that I was eager and ready to dive in. And so they accepted that and luckily ever since then I haven’t had to look back or think about any of those previous jobs that I held that weren’t allowing me to expand myself.”

So what led Erica to be so eager to jump right in? The answer is more than one thing, but it’s what so many people want: an opportunity to feel valued and appreciated… and to hear the truth!

“I think it was really that we talked about the no cap on commission, everywhere else I had worked there was a cap on how much you can earn – and I know that this was a big thing,” says Erica. “Being fresh out of college, you don’t know what to expect or what I should be looking for. So for me it was like, okay, I want to make sure this isn’t too good to be true. So when I went in to my initial pitch, at the time it was with Carson Rogers and then Kyle Weller. They both presented the job, but then they said, “Look, you’re going to have late nights, you’re going to have nights where you’re feeling unaccomplished and stuff like that, and it kind of prepped me for the bad side – but I felt like that was the first time that any job place had actually been upfront with me with the pros and cons, and not just trying to be like, “hey this is the best thing ever.”

“I felt like, okay, well these are people who are being real with me and setting expectations, and that’s what I want, just be honest with me. If you’re telling me this is the bad side, then I can live with that, so sign me up all day. A lot of these other jobs I had seen, or even worked at, it kind of felt like, okay, this is too good to be true. There’s got to be a catch. And there always was. So the fact that this company looks at what’s in the best interest of the agent, and cares about their people, that spoke out to me. Also at this office, we have a lot of people who brought in their brother or sister or cousin, whatever, that also work here. That struck a chord with me. It was like, okay, clearly if people are succeeding, and if you’re bringing on family members and you want them to succeed, then that it means this must be a good deal. You wouldn’t bring in your cousin if they were going to be broke and upset and stuff like that. So not only are these people here really nice, but they’re creating this family-like environment. So between that honesty and this environment, I felt like what I was walking into made me feel confident to not go back to my other job.”

Still, it was a big move for Erica to find her way to Tennessee, a state where, when she started, she knew precisely no one except her fiancé.

“When my fiancé, Reid and I had met in college, his family lived in Nashville,” says Erica. “Now they live in Memphis. And so being in any city, even Buffalo, in New York state, when people think about opportunities, they think immediately, New York City, Chicago, or Boston, kind of the classic cities of big opportunities. Reid wanted a career in finance, but his parents told him and us, it’s not what you think. You’re going to be sorry, you’ll be a small fish in a big pond over there. Here in Nashville you could be a big fish in a small pond because it’s still growing, there’s still opportunity and you’re going to get taken care of here, rather than being in New York or Chicago, where you’re always trying to catch up to make it. I’m honestly so grateful that they had us make this move to Nashville, because we were also able to afford a house here eventually. It wouldn’t have been easy at all in a big city.”

“It all happened for a reason. Reid’s parents pointed out the big opportunity we could have here, and I came to visit. Reid moved here first and spent a little time with his family. I followed him after we graduated in the summer of 2019.”

Big opportunity, but also a big move for Erica, since all she had known was her around-the-corner kind of love and care from her very close-knit family.

“I was the oops kid,” laughs Erica. “My brother Joe is five years older than me, my sister Nicole, is 13 years older than me, so my sister was probably a little bit of an early oops. But I was definitely the-not-planned third one. But it was kind of great growing up, having an older sister that was essentially a second mom. She was the mom that I could go to that I knew wouldn’t get me in trouble or yell at me if I did something wrong. So it was great having her advice. Both my brother and sister moved to Florida. But it wasn’t really until I left first, and then that kind of sparked the, “Okay, well, if the youngest can do it and be happy and figure it out. I’m sure we all can.”

“I think it’s probably my greatest accomplishment – moving to a city completely alone without family and being able to start a job and never fall behind on things like, knock on wood, rent. I grew up super, super close to my big Italian family. My mom is one of six kids and my dad is one of five. So there were a bunch of aunts and uncles around all the time. My grandma lived around the block. My uncle lived on that same street. My aunt lived across the street from me. So growing up it was like, if you were hungry, you just went across the street to my aunt’s house and the odds were there was food there. So it was a little bit of a different mix in my childhood.”

“Obviously, there were not aunts or uncles or cousins or mom and dad, or anyone to kind of call on here in Nashville. Sometimes, because of that of, I got lonely. But I think that’s kind of the great thing with this career at USHA, is that I was able to bury my head in the sand and keep developing everything that I had already become up to that point. This job allowed me to refine not just sales techniques, but it helped me grow as far as being able to be comfortable in any situation, talk to people, figure out what I have in common with that person. It’s really helped me become a more well-rounded person, not just moving here, but also this job helped encompass all the things I needed to get better.”

Before she found USHA, what also helped Erica improve was her shot in the spotlight; as she was slowly building her life in Tennessee, her original state of residency came calling. Erica had been accepted to compete for Miss New York USA.

Erica entered the pageant and came in second runner-up!! It was an experience and an accomplishment Erica says was life-changing.

“The pageant not only honed my public speaking and presentation skills, but also taught me the art of self-promotion and confidence,” says Erica. “Navigating the rigorous competition required resilience and strategic thinking, qualities that seamlessly translated into my sales career. Through the pageant, I learned the importance of building genuine connections and communicating effectively—skills that have been instrumental in my ability to forge strong relationships with clients and achieve exceptional results in the business world. The pageant’s emphasis on poise and perseverance continues to inspire and drive my professional success as I always want to exude those qualities with everything I do!”

Even with that life experience in her back pocket, Erica says it wasn’t as easy as you might think to get going at USHA—nothing new ever is—but once she did, she realized the sky’s the limit.

“Honestly, it was slow going at first,” says Erica. “And my start was slow because I’m the type of person, maybe it’s my biology background (Erica completed a double major in Biology and Chemistry in college). I don’t know, but I’m the type of person where I feel like I need to know everything in order to feel confident about it. The hardest “no” I ever got from a prospective client forced me to learn everything. So that way I never got a hard “no” again. That was a defining moment.”

“I didn’t know how to relate to people as well in the insurance world. So I went, sat in Carson and Lindsay’s office, between the two of them, and listened to every single call they made and how they were talking with other people. I recorded some of their calls and noticed it was like studying for final exams. I fell asleep listening to the recordings, and I woke up, and all of a sudden, it was like the language clicked, and it all made sense.”

“It was about my third week in when I really got going. I was like, “Ok, I’ve got this.” Every single person I’m talking to, I’m at least going to keep them on the phone and make sure that they remember my name and that I remember something about them, their grandchildren, or whatever they’re doing that day. And since then, I feel like what’s always helped me stand out is just having that personal approach to everything.”

“Looking at my sales, the last 10, seven of them are referrals. And I think that speaks to being able to communicate with someone so well that they’re like, “Oh, you know what? Here’s my cousin’s number, here’s my coworker’s number,” and they’re not hesitant to give it to me. I feel like it’s just treating people how they want to be treated. I get on the phone and if it’s a 40-year-old woman, I’m talking to her like I’m talking to my aunt and it’s just casual. How’s the family? What are you up to? What are your stresses or problems? And then kind of finding the solution for that.”

That’s sales 101: find the problem, provide the solution, care for the client, and provide tremendous value. It’s helping other people every day—and people pay for that service. Money is simply an exchange of energy. Give more energy, care more, and make more money. Erica has learned at USHA that if you work hard, really hard, you can build a truly rewarding career, professionally and personally.

But the key word in all of this is work.

“My biggest takeaway I think I’ve learned at the very young age of 27,” says Erica, “would probably just be that if you want to get overpaid, you’re going to have to overwork. If you want to sit at the table with the big dogs, then you’ve got to put in the time. And I think a lot of people see how great this opportunity is two, or three years in, and they just want to be there already. We don’t really fantasize or talk about that first year and the grind of sacrifices. I think anyone in this job who wants to build a career to gain financial stability, if we want those things in life, it’s going to come at a cost. And that cost is going to be your time. And that’s not just your time this week, but your time next week and the week after, and the week after, it’s the consistency of that time.”

“I’d rather work a hell of a lot now. So I retire early and chill a little more, focusing on my business, clients and doing whatever. That would be my ideal way to approach this job. So I feel like if anyone else has that same mentality, which I would imagine probably everyone that accepts a commission-only job wants to get paid-it’s just that you have to overwork if you want to get overpaid. And probably the second thing I would say is my biggest takeaway from this job, or my biggest advice too that I give to new people – is just staying consistent day in and day out.”

There’s never a secret; it’s the same formula time after time for the most successful people – the differentiator is the willingness, tenacity, and perseverance to do the activities repeatedly, for long stretches, and having faith that in the end, the compound effect of that effort will reap tremendous benefits.

Overwork gets a bad rap. It doesn’t mean being stressed, tired, unhealthy or the like, it means that to be the best, you can’t just put in average effort, you’ve got to put the extra in front of ordinary to become extraordinary.

Like Erica, overwork will get you over the top.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,

Mark Brodinsky