In life, you gain success by doing, not just by speaking. Action is the secret ingredient. You can say it all you want, but not until you act, will you see it manifest into reality.
It’s the same in business, just do it. And bring others with you on your mission, one which is clear, certain and simple. No one builds alone, you must have a team to create the dream.
That dream realized is your story.
Everyone has a story.
I am Mark Brodinsky and this is Storytelling for Business.
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Storytelling for Business: Follow The Leader
Age doesn’t define leadership; maturity, responsibility and a desire to give is what creates success and attracts those who desire to follow. Reid Demyan knows this as well as anyone, because at the age of 23, he’s already the leader of the pack.
“I’ve matured tremendously doing this with USHA,” says Reid. “I was a selfish person growing up, but getting into leadership here taught me to care about other people, which makes all the difference.”
The ability to care has served Reid well, especially when he decided he wanted to grow, to expand and to take his business to another part of the country. Reid is a Satellite Divison Leader with USHEALTH Advisors and recently made the move from Tampa, Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada… the decision was a gamble, but the vision paid off because most of Reid’s team went west with him.
In a little more than 18 months, Reid went from being a top-producing agent to a major leadership role – a short period of time, but a long, long way from where he started. The 2,000-mile-plus trek has made the mission and the challenge even greater. But it’s right in Reid’s sweet spot, the tougher the task, the more he’s focused.
“Every single day is different in leadership,” says Reid. “Between writing my own business and making sure it works for the agents here, it’s stressful, but everything about the job is challenging, it’s why I love it so much and why I’m so disciplined.”
Reid says it’s the discipline he learned from his dad. At one point in his life Reid’s father, Kirk Demyan, was a professional baseball player, a pitcher in the farm system for two different major league teams. You don’t get the chance to play pro sports unless you master the art of hard work.
“I have the most incredible parents,” Reid says, “and I learned everything from my dad – my morals, my work ethic… everything. I was born after my dad finished his baseball career, he blew out his hamstring and had to call it quits. But he went to work for a non-profit foundation obtaining grants for low-income communities, he’s now the CFO of the organization. My dad made good money and we always had everything we needed. I played travel hockey, my brother played travel hockey, my sister played soccer and all those sports are not cheap, but whatever we needed my dad provided. That work ethic and that focus on being a great provider are what I want to do for my own family one day.”
It’s also about being able to adapt and change. Even though only in his early 20’s, Reid says he’s made several tough changes, including his move to college, far from home.
“I would probably say the transition from high school to college, just from a maturity standpoint, is one of my greatest accomplishments,” says Reid. “In high school, I was the exact opposite of who I am now. I was always getting into stuff in high school. I don’t think anybody who knew me in high school would think I’d be where I am now. I went to high school in Pennsylvania and then moved south to go to the University of Tampa. Distancing myself and putting myself into a new environment and not knowing anybody when I made the move, was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
The move south and playing college sports may have also forced Reid’s hand to actually give up his favorite game… the game of baseball. “I played hockey and baseball pretty much from the time I could walk,” says Reid. “I loved it in high school and I was a good pitcher and a very good outfielder. I had a strong arm and I could track almost any ball hit out there, but in college when they found out I could pitch, they made me a reliever and I hated it. And once you realize you’re not playing past college, and the fact that it’s so time-consuming – I mean I don’t know how anyone can play sports and study anything hard – all I wanted to do was get out. I actually started skipping practices and just working out, because I loved being in the gym and doing body-building. The sport of body-building made me track my disciplines with the competitions I entered and once I got into leadership at USHA, the structure I had practiced in my personal life, helped me big-time in my business.”
While Reid was building his body, he was also busy building a relationship, one that would change the course of his life. Reid ended up rooming with an old friend from school, who was also living in Tampa, Thomas Trifaro. Tom was working with USHEALTH Advisors. “I didn’t know much about it,” says Reid. “Before I started at USHA I didn’t know a whole lot about health insurance. But I saw the money Tom was making and the freedom he had to basically control his own schedule. I saw how he could set his own days and take care of business at the same time.”
Reid continues, “After winter break, Tom took me in for an interview with Jason Grief, Division Leader for USHA in Tampa. I told Jason I have about three months of school left, and I can’t just drop out, I really didn’t want to disappoint my parents, that was important to me. I knew it would make my parents happy if I graduated with my degree in criminology. Jason wanted me to come back after I graduated when I was ready to go.” But Reid had other ideas and asked Jason for the chance to come and learn the business while he finished school. It’s not something that’s normally done, but Jason agreed. “I figured I could come into the office now, even part-time,” says Reid, “and prepare myself and be ready to start making money right away when I graduated.”
While the idea seemed smart to Reid, it was not something he was ready to share with his parents. “I kept working at a catering job during my final semester to earn extra money to pay my rent, and I didn’t even tell my parents about USHA until July…two months after I graduated. Around April, my dad started sending me job postings for law enforcement. I knew I wasn’t going to choose that career, but I played along. By June, my dad was asking me when I was going to get serious about getting a job, but I still didn’t tell him about my work with USHA. I wanted to be making money right out of the gate with this company, so when I finally told them about the move I could show them there was money to back up my decision.”
The clock was ticking on coming clean to his parents, but fortunately, by July things started to click for Reid. “The first week of July I got a $5,000 weekly advance check,” says Reid, “and that’s when I broke the news to my dad. I knew it was going to be kind of strange for them to hear about it at first because they just sent me to college for four years, but I told my dad I wanted to be able to do what he had done for our family, to be a great provider. I let him know I just couldn’t make that kind of money in law enforcement. The other thing I said was, I want to have a family one day and with a job in law enforcement, I didn’t want to leave every morning not knowing if I was coming home that night.”
The news went over well, Reid’s parents, though surprised, were on board. “Like I said I have the most incredible parents,” says Reid. “My dad was in with me right away. I think just by their nature, moms tend to worry more. So my mom’s biggest concern was that being self-employed, with no boss, she wondered if I’d be disciplined enough to do this. The most shocking thing is once you see the results coming out from what you are putting in here, why wouldn’t you put in the hours to see what you can make happen? I was plenty disciplined!”
And that’s what Reid said he has done, nearly from day one… he’s put in the work. “I had a great six months back in 2017,” says Reid. “And in 2018 I let it slip a little bit. I didn’t start having really good weeks in 2018 until July – but then I turned up the heat and went from 50th in the country to 4th in personal production.” In June of 2018, Reid was promoted to a Field Training Agent with USHEALTH Advisors and was promoted again to a Satellite Division Leader when he made the move out west, the move he requested.
“I reached out to my Regional Leader, Taraina McCants to ask how I could take my business to the next level. I had just watched one of my leaders, Steve Cohen, open up a Satellite Division in Tallahassee. Steve has a son who is at Florida State and it was a great opportunity for him to be closer to his son and to recruit near a major university. He wanted me to go with him, but I didn’t want to leave Tampa for Tallahassee. Taraina told me about some other opportunities in other states and when I suggested Nevada, she said there was no office there. I did my research and saw there were two major colleges near Las Vegas, totaling about 85,000 students, a great spot for us to recruit to the USHA opportunity.”
The only question remained if Reid built it, would his team come? As a Field Training Agent, Reid had built a sizeable team and he needed many of them to make the trip across the country with him. “I didn’t want to leave everything I had built,” says Reid. “We had developed a lot of chemistry. My team sees how hard I work and we do it together. In Tampa, we probably worked out of my condo as much as we did from the office. One of the big reasons for my success is I would stay up late, working the west coast leads, since so much of what we do is virtual sales and when my team saw me doing that, they wanted to do it too. I wanted these guys to come with me wherever I went. We built the type of culture they fell in love with and I wanted to keep it going.”
Ask and you shall receive – when he told them he wanted to make the move, nearly every agent on Reid’s team said they would go.
Follow the leader.
Reid says his first goal was to make sure all the agents were situated and taken care of. He says he’s had at least ten of them live with him for a few weeks at a time in Vegas, while they looked for a place to live. He also needed to teach them how to downplay the distractions of living so close to the “action.”
“The strip was a challenge in itself from the beginning,” says Reid. “But what my agents learned from me in Tampa last year was you can’t just play around the beginning of the year and then try to play catch-up. Work first, enjoy it second. I learned my lesson in the first six months of 2018, it’s why I finished fourth, not first in the country in personal production. You have to keep your drive and work ethic consistent.”
Now the focus will be on building the Vegas office to be one of the best in the country, and Reid says it will, because he has learned from the best.
“January and February were kind of slow with recruiting, but we’ve been doing a lot better recently. That’s the major focus coming out here – Taraina McCants always preaches, recruit, recruit, recruit. If she didn’t put so much emphasis on that I wouldn’t do it as much. Because of her leadership, it was never a major concern of mine making the move. And I’ve got the support of my Division Leader, Jason. I want what Jason has built in Tampa, to replicate that here on the west coast. We’ve kept the same name, The (West Coast) Closers, and all the same structure and training. If I didn’t have Jason as a mentor, I don’t know where I’d be with this career. Besides my parents, Jason is probably the most giving person I’ve ever met in my life.”
Reid’s goal is to bring this opportunity to life for as many as possible as he builds the Las Vegas office and he knows you do that by showing as many as possible the power of HOPE – Helping Other People Everyday, especially the clients. “I love the fact you can save so many people money and get them a better health product,” says Reid. “When you get them a plan and you package it together the right way, you are giving them the best product in the industry for our market. What you can save people in dollars and give them back in benefits is a phenomenal thing we are able to do. I have families save so much they can then invest the money back into their families, pay for sports programs for their kids, take better vacations, free up money to invest in their small business. It is changing other people’s lives.”
It’s also leading by example for his team. “If you want all of your agents to be making a great living, they need to be helping as many people as possible, putting in the work and closing the deals. I know the best way to get my agents writing business is to sit down with me and watch me do it and watch my other leaders do it. If you want to be a million dollar producer here you’ve got to put in the work, put in the 12 hour days. Make the job more of a lifestyle, than a job. And show them the way.”
In other words, follow your leader.
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark
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