Live and give. You can’t take any of it with you, so why not give it away while you’re here?
If you invest in yourself to make you better, to build yourself up for other people, and use the unique power that only you possess, then how can you go wrong?
These questions are easily answered but hard to put into practice because we all fear the greatness inside every one of us. Yet, it exists and can impact the lives of others if we tackle the obstacles head-on and believe in the power we possess.
Kelly Robertson knows this all too well, he had to battle back from living life on the edge, to creating a life to be proud of at USHEALTH Advisors.
“I’ve come through a number of challenges,” says Kelly. “I’d say the biggest challenge I had was figuring out how to create what I’ve created. When I found out we were having our second child, kind of being thrown into it with no plan and then figuring out how to make it work, that was a big challenge. I had my business taken away from me during COVID. I was selling products to restaurants. So going through that phase, living on a loan from the government and then finding no light at the end of the tunnel through the old business – and things getting a lot worse after COVID, especially for restaurants, yeah, I had to pivot. I was at the end of my loan money and that was probably the biggest struggle of my life. I had two kids, a newborn and I a 2-year-old at that time, I owed the government $20,000 from a COVID loan and I had no plan, no career, no savings. I had nothing.”
But Kelly did have a friend, and from a distance, he was watching that friend building something from nothing.
“I went to high school with a guy named Johan Farigua,” says Kelly, “and I was looking at what he was posting on Facebook. Once he started growing his career and business, he did a lot of Facebook marketing. And so, at one point when COVID first happened, and I was facing the biggest hurdle of my life, I reached out to Johan and asked what he was doing.”
“At that time I actually thought I was going to get into real estate. I told Johan, “Hey, I don’t know if this restaurant thing’s going to come back so I wanted to hear what you are doing.” But at the same time I was also talking to another high school friend in Orlando who Johan knew. So Johan listened to me, and then wished me luck. He said, “If it doesn’t work out, you can come back to talk to me some more and look into USHEALTH Advisors.”
“That was a year before I started and it’s the biggest regret everybody always says about this opportunity… not starting earlier. Everything kind of crumbled with the real estate opportunity. And then living on my $20,000 government loan, it was going down fast, I had about a grand left to my name. So I started filling out resumes for sales jobs. I reached out again to Johan and he said, “Just send over your resume and come in for an interview.”
“It seemed a little bit informal, but Johan also made me feel like I needed to be checking out what he was doing. He made it easy for me to come and see him. Keep in mind, my loan money was already running out but because of COVID my rent was in forbearance. I wasn’t having to pay it. My landlord was really good for a while about that, so I was getting comfortable. And then, an old knee injury became a real issue and I had to have major surgery. So as soon as I thought something was going to happen with a new business, I wasn’t able to walk. I wasn’t able to walk for a month and a half. I had a blood clot, and a long healing process, it was very upsetting. And so for my interview, I crutched in, post-surgery to Johan’s gigantic office, a ton of people looking like they were working hard, but also having a great time.”
At the same time, Kelly wasn’t sure he was making a great impression.
“Because of my surgery recovery and COVID and everything else, I had grown a long beard. Never had a beard in my life. I looked like a bum crutching into this place. I couldn’t bend down so Johan had to help plug in my computer. But all around me I could see Johan’s success, how he was helping everyone, and leading this big office. And I understood the USHEALTH Advisor’s mission of HOPE and Johan had this big buy-in with it – and so do I now – centered around helping other people. Whether you are doing it as a leader, helping people create careers and futures for their family, or you’re doing it on an individual basis and you’re helping families, I really can relate to all of it.”
Kelly was ready to take the leap of faith, but the pull of his own young family was weighing on him. How could he commit to taking on a sales position, which would mean long hours away from them, leaving his wife to shoulder most of the burden?
It was a question to ponder, and Kelly got introspective to take what he learned from his past to make the best decision for his present and future. The lessons and learnings in our personal history are there for a reason, as guide posts on what to do… and what not to do.
Kelly’s ultimate decision and why in a moment, but first let’s back track a bit.
Kelly’s history, like so many, is varied. Successful people reach each point in their lives through a great deal of trial and error.
Kelly did it all, from playing baseball for a decade, to being a skateboarder and breaking nearly every bone in his body, to surfing and fishing, and then to feeling the bumps and bruises of being an entrepreneur.
“I could make money doing anything. I felt like I was confident,” says Kelly. “So I was buying boats, selling boats, buying cars, selling cars. And then I had money saved up so that’s when I started an electronic cigarettes store when it was the hot trend. I’ve always tried to be the best or the first at everything I’m doing. I had a buddy doing well in Daytona, Florida with the electronic cigarettes, but there was obviously not a long-term future in that. I saw the trouble coming with regulations and so got into distribution with local restaurants.”
But the hardship during COVID led him to the doorstep of USHEALTH Advisors, and the hard decision on how to make the sacrifices necessary to do it. Kelly credits some great mentorship from an important man in his life to see the light.
“My dad was military,” says Kelly. “So we’re from all over the place. My brother was born in Virginia, my sister was born in Ohio. Growing up, my parents, they were solid and we always followed my dad. So we ended up in Ohio for a time. That was up until about second grade. And then we moved to Florida.”
“My dad, he’s a problem solver. For him, everything is, “I’ll do it myself.” So I take the best of the best from my father, best mentor ever, he got me to where I am. But if I lived the way he lived, I’d be mowing my lawn, versus hiring the lawn guy to mow the lawn so that I can work an extra hour because I’m buying back my time from all the mistakes made. Actually, I wouldn’t call them mistakes, but all the learning foundational steps I took, getting to where I was at the time. And learning so much from my dad, definitely that aggressive approach to solve problems helped me a great deal, I’ve always had that knack to be a problem solver.”
Not just a problem solver, but also a hard worker. Kelly says he’s always realized everything worthwhile takes work and it’s like climbing a rope, one hand at a time.
“I’ve always been a hand-over-fist kind of guy where I learned how to make money,” says Kelly. “I thought I was going to school to find out a way to do it the old-fashioned way, get a bachelors degree, and maybe become an accountant, but I stopped at my Associate’s degree. I knew I didn’t want to be an accountant at that point anymore, but I liked money, which led me there. I knew in that industry I wasn’t going to figure out how to help other people make their money, to help others in that way, and that was a light bulb moment for me.”
Kelly’s desire to help others, including his own family, eventually led him to take the leap of faith and get ready to sign on to join USHA. But then Johan laid out the schedule, not sugarcoating anything in the work effort and the initial sacrifices to make that career a success.
“At first I told Johan I couldn’t do it,” says Kelly. And he said, “Yeah, I know, it’s all good.” He didn’t even push back twice at that. I was like, eight am to eight pm, that’s a lot, I knew how important the kids and my wife were to me. I was living in Orlando and would have to drive the hour to Satellite Beach. And Johan said I know, “That’s why I wanted to tell you the hardest thing first.” I appreciated that, because Johan didn’t tell me only what I wanted to hear.”
But with Kelly’s life experiences, the problem solving genes he inherited from his dad, Kelly’s desire to earn a good living, to no longer suffer from his dwindling government loan, and his innate desire to help others, Kelly took the leap of faith.
He’s never looked back.
Kelly worked the hours he needed to, was able to eventually modify a bit to fit the needs of his young family, even spending hours working from his garage and then stepped up into leadership to teach others how they too could become successful. He credits Johan with his model of leadership.
“Johan is a determined guy,” says Kelly. “That’s very inspiring. So knowing I was going to be following in his footsteps was very assuring for me, very assuring. And my other leader at the time, Michael Latorre, was instrumental in my success. He listened to me make calls, helped me send texts. Early on he solved 99% of the challenges I experienced in this business.”
Challenges, facing and overcoming them are what build character and a successful sales career. To date, Kelly has issued more than $6 million in personal production and his teams have produced more than $15 million in team business. Kelly even introduced one of his siblings to the USHA career.
Then there’s Kelly’s wife, Allie, whom Kelly met nearly a decade ago when she walked by his storefront in Cocoa Beach.
The couple now have their two boys, Kai and Brooks. Brooks was the newborn who came along four years ago, just as Kelly was launching his career at USHA. And they have their dog Kiko. It’s a full life, one Kelly is proud of, not only for his family, but the career and opportunity he loves sharing with others, whether it be an up-and-coming agent or his newest insurance policy holder.
“I mean, this is 100-percent the idea of leaving behind the right legacy” says Kelly. “I love helping people, and solving problems like we do with our USHEALTH products. I’ve created great relationships with people. I’ve helped people through very troubling times with our products and that really invigorates me. So, really the whole approach for me is the buy-in, having it and keeping it and reinventing it, always nurturing it that way. It’s finding challenges, finding ways to help people, and then furthering my success to care for my family and making it so my wife doesn’t have to work. It’s the overall stability and the security USHA gives us. It’s a feeling I’ve never been able to achieve anywhere else. It keeps me going. So it’s hard to describe it any other way, but definitely the long-term stability, because coming from the early part of my story, having things change up on me, as so many people do, it’s really hard to bet on the next five years. But with this type of opportunity, with USHEALTH Advisors, it’s easy to make that bet – and it’s been awesome – really, really awesome.”
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky
