Act as if. Fake it till you make it. Never let ’em see you sweat. All clichés that salespeople latch onto when starting on the road to creating their own business.
And they all work, if you do. Feigning confidence is not a bad thing. If you act the way you want to feel, pretty soon you will feel the way you act. It’s the compound effect.
You’ve got to start somewhere; to get to that somewhere you want to go. That journey becomes the experience of your story.
Everyone has a story.
I am Mark Brodinsky, and this is Mark Brodinsky You Matter Storytelling.
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Mark Brodinsky Storytelling: A Contributor to Others
Adversity is a terrible thing to waste.
Seth Groff came to that realization the day after one of the most important relationships in his life (up to that point) came to an end.
That “day after” became Seth’s calling card. He wasn’t going to wallow in pity; he was ending his period of complacency, he was going to take action, and commit himself fully to his career at USHEALTH Advisors.
You either change on your own, or you wait until change hits you in the face. Seth took the blow in his personal life, got back up off the mat, and redirected his life.
It worked.
Upon the writing of this story, Seth, who now serves at USHA as a Satellite Division Sales Leader, has led his teams to more than $60 million in issued business. Seth has been with USHEALTH Advisors since early 2019 and still recalls the moment it all became clear to him…that this was what he needed to do.
“I do feel like I have a pretty cool, different story that most people don’t have,” says Seth. “It’s not like a zero-to-hero story. But when I started at USHA, I was in a relationship, and I think I was distracted more than a little by that relationship and was more or less living a comfortable life. After that relationship ended, I started to really pour myself into my business and completely dedicate myself to this opportunity, and get uncomfortable. The commitment was it. That for me was massive.”
“My first three years at USHA were good. “I had an awesome taken-rate (persistency rate), and I made a pretty good living. But once I ended up single again, I was really able to run through the USHA door and close that other door behind me. I saw that moment as an opportunity to say I can reinvent myself and commit to something. I’d avoided fully committing to it before. I shifted my mindset of where I need to be in life to where I need to get to in life. I felt like I had been procrastinating. I was also watching a whole bunch of my friends, whom I brought to USHA, become super, super successful. Guys like Michael Farhad, who is a Satellite Division Sales Leader in West Shore, Tampa. What an amazing guy. I brought him over from LA Fitness, and I watched his whole life change, personally and financially. Watching him transform the way he did was something that I sat there and said, “I need to really make sure that I’m not missing out on this opportunity. I always knew that USHA was the opportunity of a lifetime for me.”
What Seth was also all-in on was that USHEALTH Advisors was the right place to be, and the company was doing the right thing for other people, especially clients.
If there’s one thing that matters to Seth, it’s how he “lives” his life.
“I would say my reputation is super-important to me,” says Seth, “because that’s something that you can lose in a moment.”
Reputation is a driving force in Seth’s life, so much so that earlier in his career Seth left another well-paying sales job, where his values were being challenged daily.
“I did different sales roles, and one of them was car sales, says Seth. “I had success with car sales, but it actually wasn’t really something that I was enjoying, and I realized that it wasn’t aligning with my values. Whenever I would sell a car, I was told my goal was to not be forthcoming with the customer on the price of the vehicle, get the highest interest rate and make as much profit as possible. And if I win, they lose. I didn’t feel like my goals in that sales style of work were aligned with the customer’s goals. So I went to a mentor of mine at church, and I said, “Hey, I’m laying my head down at night and I don’t feel good about making a massive profit on somebody and maybe taking advantage of their ignorance and what the price of the vehicle should be and things like that.”
“My mentor said, “That’s a great point. I thought you would come to that conclusion one day, though you probably learned a lot of really strong sales skill sets, as well as what not to do in sales! Maybe you should start doing something where you feel like you’re giving back to the community and giving back to the customer. Do something where you are solving a problem for them, and then you’re simply leading them through that process.”
That values assessment led Seth to another sales position, and this time it was a place where Seth felt he was helping people live better lives.
“That’s actually what got me into the fitness industry,” says Seth. “I said, okay, well, I want to help people out, and I love fitness. So when I was about 27, I ended up switching sales careers and working for LA Fitness as a sales consultant there, with the intention of becoming a general manager as quickly as I could. And I did. After one year of working there they promoted me to become a general manager, and I had a lot of success. I was eventually managing their signature fitness gym, which is their highest level, top-notch facility. I managed 52 employees. It was a lot of responsibility, a lot of sales and training and development for the staff, as well as on the membership side of the business.”
But eventually, Seth started to see the weight of his fitness sales position wearing him down.
“After four or five years there, I started to realize they were constantly changing the pay structure, and many times they would lower the pay for all the different levels, including the general manager level. And I was starting to feel like we were not valued if you worked within the club and you weren’t an area manager or above.”
“I felt like we were being brainwashed a little bit, and we worked extremely hard. I mean, most general managers were working like 70 hours a week, but you always felt capped on your income. Yes, there was a commission plus a base. I did make good money, but I felt like I was just a number to the company, and they didn’t prioritize even the general manager position for how much we did for the company, and running the entire club, and that started to pain me. I knew there had to be a bigger purpose for me – there’s got to be more impact, there’s got to be a more financially lucrative career. I also didn’t want to keep jumping from company to company and giving them my all and then realizing this isn’t it for me.”
To clarify his issue, Seth didn’t feel like he mattered. The company wasn’t fulfilling his deepest, and all of our deepest craving in life, to feel valued and appreciated.
“I told myself I need to go to a company that aligns with my values, and where I’m also able to make a really good income in the process, and it needs to be something where I feel like I have more ownership of the business and more control. And so when I started looking around to see what else was out there, I saw a group of individuals in my social network and noticed they were really improving in their lives – personal growth, financial growth, their outlook on life – and all were selling health insurance. These were people I knew who maybe didn’t have all that going on just a few years before. And so I started thinking, what is with this insurance thing? I started investigating it more and noticed these were other people who left the fitness sales industry and had now been with USHEALTH Advisors for a few years.”
Once he stared at USHA, Seth loved what he saw as a win-win-win scenario.
“At USHEALTH Advisors, I began to see how we are really trying to save our customers as much money as we can on health insurance, but also provide them the most value in that process, and protect them. I felt like this was really starting to align with my values. Whenever a customer wins and they’re happy, that means the insurance company typically wins as well. And then that means that the agent wins. And I love that all three parties in this industry win – when the client is happy, the insurance company is profitable, therefore we’re happy too. And when they stay on your books, you get residuals. This was something totally different than anything I’ve done. And I felt like it wasn’t that corporate America type of vibe or setup either. Coming out of the corporate fitness world, I wanted to get my life back a little bit and get myself more grounded and be part of an opportunity that was more meaningful to me, where I had purpose.”
Meaning and purpose are also embedded in Seth’s psyche, having grown up with two parents who are grounded in faith and the fundamentals of life and relationships. Seth’s mom is a marriage therapist, and his dad is a pastor.
I grew up with my younger brother, Joel, in Lakeland, Florida,” says Seth. “It’s a morally strong town, and I was blessed to have such great parents who guided us. We didn’t have a lot of money, but my parents were always able to provide for us, so childhood was really, really good.”
The foundation that is set for you in life means everything; your childhood matters in your future decisions and how you see the world and treat others. Seth’s foundation was strong, and once he got to USHEALTH Advisors and was eventually asked to step up into a new position, Seth knew he had found his sweet spot, leading by example.
“What changed for me was reigniting my leadership calling,” says Seth, “getting back into leadership and committing to that. And I knew that if I did really commit, I was going to go really hard. Leadership at USHA is something I turned down in the past because I just didn’t want to commit to it at the time. But once I felt like I was ready and I did it, the stars aligned, and things worked out really well. I was promoted multiple times. I was the number one builder and converter in the company as a Field Training Agent, and I was the number one builder and converter in the company as a Field Sales Leader, too.”
“I experienced incredible growth. I was able to build a team from zero agents in March of 2022, up to a team of 27 agents by the end of that year. I recruited and trained them all. And then, as an FSL, I did it again. I think I had some crazy numbers, like 200% growth with amazing retention. I had the highest retention level for any leader as an FTA and as an FSL. And now I’m in my first year as a Satellite Sales Leader.”
No one gets to where they want to go and hits new heights without support, someone who goes the way and shows the way. Seth says his leaders have been there every step of the way, and they are second-to-none.
“Max Willett, AJ Baker, and Jason Greif are all amazing leaders for our region. Max, who is my Divisional Sales Leader, and AJ, who is my Regional Sales Leader, have a phenomenal partnership. They’re an amazing tag team, and they try to align their vision with what my vision is for myself. The whole leadership team is ambitious, hungry, and competitive; we’re a tight group who lifts up one another. Our structure is first-class.”
Seth also says he has a special place in his heart for the man who was his original Field Sales Leader, Chad Douglas.
“Chad is a selfless human being,” says Seth. “He was my FSL when I was told I would be promoted from an FTA to an FSL. Since my FTA team and I were really Chad’s entire group, he knew he would lose all of us if I got promoted. He told me to do it. Chad said he would never stand in my way. It was so incredibly selfless; Chad took a massive hit because with my promotion, he basically lost his entire team. But Chad showed me what caring is all about and what an incredible human being looks like at USHA.”
There’s also another incredible human being whom Seth met while he was still working in sales in the fitness industry, and who came back into his life a few years later, once he had “changed” and renewed his commitment to USHA.
“I met Enid at LA Fitness, but we only dated for three months,” says Seth, “It was just kind of casual. And then we ended up getting back together, three or four years later, after I was working at USHEALTH Advisors and my other relationship ended. Enid is the only girl, the only ex, I ever got back with; she was the only one, it was meant to be. I think we were both more mature this time around. I was also doing better. I felt like, financially, as a man who was growing and taking life more seriously. So I was in a better place. She had matured a lot as well.”
“We ended up getting married back in January. I proposed to her in Spain. I took her to Spain and traveled all around the country, then did a beautiful proposal out there. Enid is from Cuba. I’m half-Cuban, so my mom loves her.”
“Enid is an incredible woman. It’s a dream come true. She’s beautiful and she’s ambitious and supportive and she’s bought into my vision for us and my career at USHA, which is very important and powerful. She knows I’m going to lay it down every single day at work and go hard, and it’s going to set us up for a really bright future. A little bit of short-term sacrifice now, for the long-term gain later. Enid understands that vision really well, and she wants that lifestyle that we can envision for ourselves. It‘s been amazing. Enid is a realtor too, so I love that she has a little bit of flexibility and can focus on her business, but then make the time we need so that we can spend time together. And yes, we got married last January, but our actual wedding ceremony is going to be in Cuba, this January, 2026.”
So what does the future hold for Seth, his wife, his team, and his role at USHEALTH Advisors? Seth says he’s excited to see how it all unfolds.
“I see so much fulfillment being here at USHA,” says Seth. I’m not motivated by money, but something that fills me up is that everybody I come in contact with gets to level up their life in some way. Maybe it’s a piece of advice, maybe it’s just a friendship, but I always want to make a positive impact on anybody that I come across. I feel like I am doing God’s work here and also helping people grow closer in their faith.”
“I’m also always thinking about my wife and our future family. I’m already thinking 10 years ahead, and what it’s going to look like. Will I be available for my kids? Will I be set up to be there and do what I need for them? That’s why I’m working hard now. Will I be able to provide everything for them? Will I be able to be their soccer coach? I love to play soccer! It’s my me-time.”
“So I’m always planning and envisioning those things. I want to be a great husband, doing things for my wife and making her proud, and doing it for the Lord.”
“I really feel a strong calling of a purpose, and my legacy is important to me – I want everybody to say he was beloved and he gave back to everyone else. I want my being to be tied to a great reputation and all the lives that I have impacted. The two big motivators for me are that I am fulfilling God’s purpose, and I strongly feel like God put me on this earth for a reason, to be a contributor to others.”
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky