Never sell yourself short. Ever.
Your existence on this planet is a gift, so remain grateful as best you can. Create something. Build something. Bring value.
The world needs those who can dig deep, believe in themselves, and let their light shine. Your light is a beacon for others, and if you can build a business that amplifies that light, the world wins.
Share how you did it, the road less traveled, the challenges, the tears, and the triumphs, and everyone will want to hear your story.
Everyone has a story. Welcome to Mark Brodinsky Storytelling.
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Mark Brodinsky Storytelling: From What If to Why Not?
Self-confidence. Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it this way: “A person’s trust in their own abilities, judgment, and power to succeed or face life’s challenges.” The Cambridge English Dictionary has its own spin: “The belief that you can do things well and the expectation of respect from others.”
Powerful definitions and descriptions in black and white, but the underlying colors of self-confidence are something else: Self-esteem, a broader evaluation of your overall personal worth and value as a human being. That’s where things can get sticky, and where life’s amusement-park ride can bring chills or thrills.
Bethany Hart has paid the fare and taken the ride in all directions, up, down, and all around, but now stands as a shining example of how to make life happen, if you have the faith to believe.
“I think one of the biggest accomplishments in life is developing my self-confidence, believing in myself, and getting over the fear of jumping in to do things, truly being who I am, instead of hiding from everybody,” says Bethany. “I think just figuring things out for myself without anyone to rely on, especially after my divorce, just kind of moving on. I’ve been out on my own since 18, but genuinely not having somebody to rely on and doing it on my own, doing things for me.”
Making it on her own has been Bethany’s theme in life. A few years ago, shortly after her brief 4-month marriage ended, Bethany felt scared and unsure, so she decided to check out USHEALTH Advisors in Fort Worth, Texas. She hopped on a Zoom call to learn more. But for Bethany, USHA wasn’t love at first sight; after all, what things in life really are?
But then Bethany came in for a face-to-face interview and met with Dixie Layton. Now, love was in the air.
“Before I came in, I was kind of skeptical, but I figured, let me just meet with Dixie. I met with her for a one-on-one interview, and I fell in love with her. I don’t know why, but she was the very first person that I told about getting my divorce, which I had just finalized. I didn’t tell my family because they all loved my ex-husband, and growing up in the Catholic religion, divorce is something pretty frowned upon, so I was afraid. I can remember my parents talking about other people in my family that had gone through divorces before, so I didn’t want that stigma. But meeting with Dixie allowed me to open up.”
“I was a completely broken person when I first came in. I mean, I met Dixie, and we joke about this all the time, but I literally cried in my interview with her, and she still decided to bring me on. And the people around here… they didn’t know who I was, what my past was, or anything like that, and they genuinely empowered me to be who I am, and to be confident, and at the time, Dixie instilled a lot of that in me.”
It was much needed. Bethany grew up as “one of the middle ones” in a 5-sibling family and, admittedly, didn’t always see eye to eye with her other sisters. The family lived on a farm. So while Bethany did what she could to get along with her other siblings, she was also expected to handle her share of farm responsibilities.
“We were always out having to work on the farm, raising the animals, taking care of show animals. So I think as a child, what I can vividly remember is just having to work a lot and take care of things, and then every Sunday we were at church with my mom. On Sundays, we helped her in Sunday school or attended Sunday school ourselves. And then we came home, and we had the chores that we were supposed to do.
“We had chicken houses when we were little. My younger sister and I were in charge of the automatic water cup feeder. We had to put little marbles in it to hold the water down until the chicks were old enough to peck at it themselves. So we would go through and put the balls in the cups, or have to collect the papers out of the cages. At night, we’d have to go catch the chickens that got out of their cages. Plus, we swept up, helped clean around the house, and took care of the barn cats or whatever animals were out and about. There was a lot to do.”
Not a bad way for Bethany to train for her current life as a USHEALTH Advisor Sales Leader, where she’s responsible for caring for her “little agent chicks” and making sure they do what they need to do to succeed. In only her second full year as a Field Training Agent, Bethany has led her team to more than $6.5 million in insurance sales, after doing more than $1 million in individual sales in only her second full year with USHA, back in 2024.
For Bethany, there’s been a lot of success after experiencing the prefix of the word success in her first year with USHA; that “suc” part. It’s the story Bethany shares with her new agents: if you suck for a while, but still work hard, follow the process, and listen to your leaders who have been where you are, you can make it to the top.
“I found USHA while I was still driving Uber in the summer of 2023,” says Bethany. “I actually kept doing Uber up until probably six months into my career here. I was doing the insurance thing all day, and then I would leave the office, drive Uber till 2 or 3 in the morning, and be back in the office at 8 am, just so I could still cover my bills and everything because after my divorce, I didn’t have anyone to fall back on. I knew that I either figured it out, or I was gonna drown and probably end up homeless. During the divorce, I went from a two-person household to being fully responsible for my mortgage. I had just purchased my house too, so I was learning all the responsibilities of owning a house versus renting, and unfortunately, a lot of problems come with owning a house sometimes, but somehow, if you want it bad enough, you find a way.”
“Honestly, my first year, I think, had I not had Dixie there, pushing me and pushing me and constantly selling me the dream, I don’t know how long I would have stuck it out. When I started, I also had my FTA, Andrew Shaw, and he’s still one of the closest people to me in this office. He empowered a lot of self-belief in me, hyping me up, telling me, “Yeah, you’re gonna be amazing; you’re gonna absolutely do amazing. You sound great on the phone; people enjoy talking to you.” So that culture and environment really pushed me to let my true self show, and from there, I had the freedom to take off. I also believe cutting off a lot of people out of my life from my past that did have a negative impact on me opened up that freedom to really go and soar.”
“It all didn’t truly get going for me in a big way until my second year at USHA. August 2024 was when things really started to take off. We switched regions, and how we worked- scripts and development- and that gave us clear direction from there. In my first full year, I issued $150,000 in annual volume. That was August 2023 to August 2024. And in my second full year, I issued $1 million! It was just a total focus for me on how we handled everything from prospecting to closing to asking for referrals.”
Then there’s the schedule. Ask any successful USHA agent who works the phones and dials leads, and they’ll tell you the same: to issue $1 million in sales in a year, your schedule is your life.
“My schedule back then is not that far off from where it is now,” says Bethany: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, then 8 to 6 on Fridays and 9 to 2 on Saturdays.
“Every day in the morning, you know, I always prioritize my 8 to 12 hours and my 4 to 8, because those are my hot times for dialing. It was consistent dialing and prospecting all day. I would take a little bit of time to do some stuff on social media, but that was pretty much my schedule back then; it was mainly focused on prospecting.”
“And I guess compared to now, I obviously still prioritize my 8 to 12 and my 4 to 8 calling hours. Those are my biggest prospecting hours. But now, there are many instances where I might have two new agents on my team who start at the same time, so they’re sitting on both sides of me, and I’m sitting there dialing with them, but I always have one ear open so I can listen to them on the phones. I mean, they hang up, and we talk about what happened: “How can we make that better? Did we ask them again what their situation was? Like… what happened?”
“I might have people behind me; if they’re on a pitch or something, I pause what I’m doing, turn around, and pay attention, look at them, make sure they are answering questions, or write something down to tell them what to say. I do one-to-ones with agents every day, from about 1 p.m. to 2 pm. 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. is typically for catching up on activities I missed or for meetings I need to attend. I set aside time each day for customer service. And then, late afternoon to early evening, I’m dialing again, prospecting, running appointments, helping out my new agents. I’m very, very hands-on. With all my new agents, I think my biggest thing now is that I’m a lot more organized with my schedule because I’m doing even more than I was back then, and I’m still projected to probably write like $1.3 to $1.4 million this year as well, so just really, really fine-tuning my schedule and being ultra-focused with everything that I’m doing.”
Having the tenacity, drive, and the ability to be focused and persevere also stems from Bethany’s past. When Bethany was only 16, she lost her mom to breast cancer.
“My mom was amazing,” says Bethany. “At first she was a stay-at-home mom, and then she kind of went and did her own thing, cleaning houses for people or babysitting, really being self-employed doing that.”
“My mom was also a breast cancer survivor, but at her 13-year anniversary checkup, they learned the breast cancer had returned, and this time it had metastasized, and unfortunately this time around she lost that battle. I also think my mom is probably a big reason why I have a lot of fight and drive, seeing her go through stuff like that in my childhood and finding the strength in my own life to keep going.”
The struggles we face and overcome are the gifts we can use to help others, and the challenges Bethany has faced and overcome have made her even more attuned to being there in a big way for her agents.
“The biggest thing that’s helped me is that, after my mom passed, I had to make a decision. I could have taken two different routes. I could have gone the route of super deep depression and getting into all the bad things, but at that low point in my life, I grabbed onto what was positive, and that was always sports for me, especially basketball.”
“So sports are kind of what got me through that, and I definitely think that influences me now. When something bad happens, I focus on what matters to me, honestly, my team of agents. Everything I do is for my team here. I mean, they are my chosen family. The people in this office are my people, so I’m a big mother figure here. I have very motherly intentions with a lot of things I do. So, being able to pass and push through any negative thing that happens, because at the end of the day, I know it could be worse somewhere else or for someone else.”
“My mission and my ultimate goal is that I genuinely want to leave a legacy behind. I want to be known as the person who touches everybody’s life in a meaningful way, whether it’s the person at the grocery store who bagged my groceries or an agent here. I want to make a meaningful impact. I want people to look at me and think, “I can’t ever say anything negative about Bethany. She was always such a positive person.” There will always be bad stuff in the world, so I’m just trying to add more good where I can. Why not be good?”
“And I want to be an inspiration. If I can do it, so can someone else. It’s about being positive; it can work, it will work if you believe in yourself. It’s that mindset, the same one I had to build… to go from what if, to why not?”
Until next time, thanks for taking the time,
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky
