“This is the greatest opportunity in America, bar none.” – Troy McQuagge, CEO, USHEALTH Advisors/USHEALTH Group
We are a family. We are a team. We are winners. Three takeaways, at least for me, from a week spent with my USHEALTH Advisors family at the very first Phoenix Family Reunion in Grapevine, Texas.
Think insurance is not a higher-calling? Think sales is something that other people do? Think you can’t change your life by accepting greater responsibility in service to others?
Think again.
There is an uncommon company and an unreal experience that emanates from the heart of the little insurance company and the little sales force that could. We have experienced nearly a decade of unparalleled growth and this past year the USHEALTH Advisors sales force accomplished $1 Billion in sales! It was no accident. There is no such thing as accidental success. It’s process and performance.
This past week, this very special Reunion, was as much about a celebration of incredible accomplishments as it was accolades for the courageous who have stayed the course. We are all immersed in the knowledge that we are part of a unique group of people who care about your well being, care about the company and its continued success. Everyone wants to prove to the marketplace, as well as our rockstar CEO Troy McQuagge, that we are and can be worthy.
Understand the agents and leaders of USHA, this company that offers affordable health coverage and supplements to individuals, families and the self-employed is unlike anything you have ever experienced. It’s not words, it’s real, it’s tangible and it’s something you have to see to believe. We don’t just work together we live to make each other better – striving each and every day to be better than we were yesterday – because greatness is a life mission.
The gathering that just took place is called Reunion for a reason – seek out a definition of the word and you get the gist – the act or process of being brought together again as a unified whole. We are a nationwide company, spread out coast to coast – but this time together, this reunion is meant to serve as a reminder that we are one – one team – one dream and as a reason to celebrate not only amazing sales accomplishments, but to celebrate each other and the life we are all called to live. The title of a song that the country super-group Old Dominion performed for us in a private concert last night, suggests what is always a stark reality… life is short, make it sweet.
And sweet it is. But the reason this blog won’t include too many photographs is because much like one of the seven wonders of the world, you have to see it to believe it and unless you take advantage of this opportunity of a lifetime in the lifetime of this opportunity, you’ll never know what it’s really like to call a company… home. A reunion is for families, families care about one another, and this is a company where the focus of our culture is first and foremost… we care.
Who goes to a company event and experiences the likes as what we saw this week? From a decorated Navy Seal, to a world-class comedian, to a Hall of Fame NFL linebacker, to a super-group topping the country charts, to the dynamic leadership of this company – to the amazing ability to shake the hand of a peer, or embrace in a hug with a fellow agent or leader – or to hear someone you work with say, ‘I love you.’
Who does this? USHEALTH Advisors does. Some more highlights from our time together…
“I know it’s a drag, I know it’s a grind,
I know that a dollar ain’t worth a dime.”
(Lyrics from Make It Sweet, by Old Dominion)
Insurance, no matter what kind, has always served as a profitable vehicle when served to the masses in a purposeful way: as a product and a promise to protect and to improve lives. So it’s no surprise there are those agents and leaders leading a prosperous existence, for they have helped and served to assist others, hundreds if not thousands of other people to get what they want and need. When you help others get what they want, you get what you want. But in the end, it’s not about the dollars, it’s about the duty, it’s about the time spent here on earth. The time you can’t get back.
“It’s not about Maseratis or mansions, it’s about moments.” – CEO Troy McQuagge
Those moments in time were on full display this week – the moments you live for, and shared by some who have lived the moments that take your breath away, in the best of times and in the worst of times.
I know you get sick of this soul-sucking town.
But let’s make a little lemonade if lemons is all we got.”
Curiosity – Finding out, so you are not found out. Questions are courage muscles.
Tribalism – Knowing you need something more than you, to do things bigger than you. The only things that matter in the tribe are the mission and the man or woman next to you.
Intentionalism – Always remembering to never forget why you started the hard journey. Life is hard days, the goal is to have few bad ones.
Authenticity – We all have scars. The bravest share them. Preach from pain, share those scars.
Clint also believes there are five outcomes you can have in life, you can be good, bad, average, excellent or elite. As he preached to all of us and I walked away with this message ringing in my head – “I’m not here to be excellent, I’m here to be elite. The elite share one common trait, they’re not done yet. Leadership is the crown you wear on the journey of your mission.”
Clint also gave me something to think about in the even bigger scheme of life. I know that my why is that I am now positively impacting the lives of a billion people. But Clint says he also believes in a High Why. Clint says his high why is, “I just want to be the kind of man my daughters would want to marry.” I am the father to two daughters and that one affirmation made me catch my breath a bit, and choke back my tears. I couldn’t agree more. Clint could have dropped the mike right there and made an exit, stage left.
I sincerely thank you, Clint Bruce.
Then there was legendary comic and comic writer Dennis Miller, who performed for us in a private event and dropped a line of sarcasm I will long remember and one I take to heart, for it IS the focus and the time-waster of those looking to live life as simply average: “Never have lives less lived, been more chronicled.” As we agents and leaders who work hard at USHEALTH Advisors know all too well, you can’t let the distractions distract you and nothing is a bigger time-waster than watching the lives of other people who waste their lives looking for LIKES on social media. It’s a life as comical as any joke Dennis could lay on us that night.
Our CEO, Troy McQuagge shared his philosophy on life and business, reminding all of us our ascension past the $1 Billion dollar mark in sales is only the beginning, “we are just getting started”, he proclaimed and it’s the truth, considering we have penetrated only about 1% of the potential market share that is sitting right in front of us. There is no attrition, only abundance. You have to believe this to be true. We are here for the mission of HOPE – Helping Other People Every Day – and that mission should serve as our guide and our compass in all that we do.
As a matter of fact, Troy shared two stories of loss and of courage in the lives of a company employee and a sales leader, both who lost children, the most difficult of life tragedies and a tragedy Troy himself has had to overcome. It was a reminder to all of us that life will never be easy, but the harder you can battle back, you’ll be able to do as Clint Bruce suggested, preach from pain and share your scars. Anyone in this company that has the courage to bear and to share a scar owns the collective hearts of all who are part of this mission with USHA.
Then there was our dynamic Senior Vice-President of Sales, Travis Yoder. Results matter in all of life, especially in business and you must count what counts and measure what matters. His talk was designed to remind us as we embark on the second half of this year, that there is much more work to be done to hit our business goal for 2019. We must help more people, build more people than ever before in the history of this company – and Travis implored all leaders to live up to the crown – “leadership is the challenge to be something more than average. Don’t think less of yourself, just think of yourself less. The question you must ask yourself is, “how bad do you want it?”
It’s a question that must be answered daily, and the only way to do that is when in doubt, “take the shot and make winning an addiction.”
“‘Cause I’m stuck on you, you’re stuck on me,
I never gotta wonder where my honey be.
I ain’t savin’ all my sugar for a Saturday night,
Seven days a week I got an appetite.”
(Lyrics from Make it Sweet – Old Dominion)
We also got to hear from the best-of-the-best, a panel of leaders, and then of leaders and their spouses, who make this opportunity not just a career, but a lifestyle… when it’s a lifestyle it’s with you – every day – seven days a week.
As one of the top leaders in the country, Jason Blank, shared with us – “take time off, but don’t take days off. Don’t waste time, don’t waste the opportunity.” Or as Alexandra Kontos shared with us, “I used to think a job had to be a sacrifice. I don’t anymore because I love this, I can be my ambitious self and it’s OK.”
Then couples who live and work together for this company bared their souls to us, revealing their very intimate challenges of life, making everyone understand that no matter how successful you appear on the outside, everyone has something broken on the inside. Everyone you will ever meet is going through something. At USHA, it doesn’t matter where you came from, or what life is putting in your path, the idea is to make everyone know they matter because that’s the God’s honest truth – everyone matters.
“Days will be long but the years will fly right by,
We’ll never be as young as we are tonight.”
(Lyrics from Make It Sweet, Old Dominion)
Ever get to share a room with a Hall of Fame athlete? We did.
The early days of life for the Chicago Bears Hall of Fame Linebacker, Mike Singletary were very long, very hard and in so many ways tragic. His father leaving, his brothers dying… you look at those who rise to the top and realize that if you thought your problems were big, they are nothing compared to what others have faced and overcome. Mike’s life was so tough he made a pact with himself to basically be mediocre. The man who became one of the Beasts of the Midway had given up in life, figuring he’d never amount to anything. But it was his mother who told him he was built for something and Mike made his vision and his dreams come true, against the odds and in the face of the naysayers who told him there was no way he could ever do it. Yet, there’s always a way. Mike explained, you just need to ask and get the answer to a single question as you look at the “impossible” goal in front of you, “just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it.” Mike said it was that simple. He didn’t want to hear he couldn’t make it in the NFL, he was too small or too soft, or too anything. It didn’t matter what others said, how they laughed at him, or what others had failed to achieve. Mike only wanted the one answer to that question, “just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it. You never met ME, just tell me what I need to do.”
Mike said the way to break through the insurmountable odds, the limiting beliefs were to focus on three things, to literally ACE life.
It’s Attitude, what you’re able to see in your mind’s eye. Courage, do you have the courage to be great? And Excellence, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s an always thing. It’s when everybody is watching and when no one is watching. It’s living a life that is beyond reproach and being excellent in EVERYTHING you do.
It seemed fitting that just hours before Mike’s talk we dodged a bullet in the form of a tornado warning in the Dallas area and we all spent some time in tunnels beneath the hotel – fortunately, the storm passed with no damage, but there was still time for the universe to conspire on our behalf again. At USHA, as in life, we strive for excellence in everything.
The violent and potentially deadly storms had kept our very special entertainers, Old Dominion, trapped in the airport in Nashville, Tennesee – unable to travel to Dallas where storms had been raging. The threat from mother nature ended mid-afternoon, but there was no way the group was going to get another flight to Dallas to perform in the special private concert we had been promised for weeks now. But, this is USHEALTH Advisors, and aligned with a band that was willing to do what it had to do to find a way to get to us, rumor has it they were able to secure a chartered flight from another performer, catch some Z’s on the way and show up in time to rock it out for us Wednesday night. If they were tired, we couldn’t tell. They were ready to give it all they had. Yes, excellence is not a sometimes thing, it’s an always thing.
Let’s find a road we’ve never seen.
Don’t waste another mile or a minute not kissin’ me.
Life is short, make it sweet,
