Mark Brodinsky Storytelling: They’ll Ask How You Did It

“But my dad got hurt when he was young. And after rehab, my parents already had my oldest sister (I have two sisters now), and my dad had to hang up the cleats. He realized baseball was not going to be it anymore. And then he tried to find his niche, and he entered the IT world and never looked back. My mom, Theresa, was on the medical side of things, helping people. She worked in the ER, and then radiology, which she did for years and years.”

“Then there’s me. In school, I was never a good student. I just wasn’t. And it was frustrating. They diagnosed me with ADD, but it’s like, who doesn’t have that? They tried to put me on medication, but I didn’t need medication. It was more like I didn’t want to do algebra at 7:30 in the morning. I realized it just didn’t apply to anything I was going to do in life.”

“AJ Baker, my Regional Sales Leader, felt the same way. He struggled in school. And so it goes to show you. I mean, look at the success AJ has had at USHEALTH Advisors as well. We were sharp kids, and we were intelligent, driven, and motivated. We just never had the vessel to show our worth. We needed to find the outlet to really unleash our competitive drive, and that is USHA. It really is. It’s the vessel. I mean, this place unlocked that competitive nature that I lost, because all through my twenties, I only worked in hospitality.”

“I waited tables and bartended. I started at McDonald’s when I was 15 years old. I told my dad I wanted this BMX bike, and it was $400. And he told me, “If you want it, you’ve got to go work for it.” And so he brought me up to McDonald’s, and they needed breakfast workers. So I was there at 5:30 AM, doing hot cakes and sausage, but I was making $300-$500 a week. I didn’t know what to do with that money at 15, almost 16 years old. But I think that’s where it clicked for me – if you want things in this life, all it takes is hard work. You have to make the choice. And while none of my friends were even thinking about a job, I was obsessed with having that money in my pocket and having the nicest bike and all that stuff.”

“So I think that translated into me sticking in hospitality all the way through my late teens and into my twenties, it was that instant gratification. I went from McDonald’s to Tijuana Flats, to Hooters, and then, as I grew up, I went to Outback Steakhouse for about six years, working with my sister and my brother-in-law, that’s where they met.”

“Since Outback was only open for dinner, I also worked at Olive Garden for lunch and went to community college as well. So I’ve never been afraid of hard work or sacrifice, and I saw the results of my hustle. I had that vision, but I never had that same drive with school. I went to college to get a business degree, and it’s like I’m sitting here in an American history class that I had to pay $2,000 for, and another $1,500 for the book! And I’m here for a business degree? I’m learning about Pocahontas and stuff like that, and I felt like, what am I doing here? What a waste. So I went back to waiting tables.”

“I worked with Josh Oldham, waiting tables too. Josh and I go back to sixth grade together. I introduced Josh and AJ when we got into high school. And then the three of us were inseparable, but AJ recruited Josh to USHEALTH Advisors before me. So then it was AJ and Josh working at USHA, while I was still being a waiter.”

“Eventually, I got into fine dining and worked at Charley’s Steakhouse. I was there for nine years. I worked my way up from server assistant to head waiter because, like anything I do in life, I don’t half ass it, I full ass it. If there’s something where I feel like I can gain more knowledge and move to the next level, I’m going to do it.”

“Being born and raised in Tampa, one of the cool things was that at Charley’s, I got to take care of all the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I was their personal waiter. Anytime they came in, I was their guy. I also served the Tampa Bay Lightning. I got to do back-to-back Stanley Cup championship dinners with them, drinking out of the Stanley Cup. Then, one year, NFL Hard Knocks featured the Tampa Bay Bucs, and they came into shoot at Charley’s. It was super cool. On top of all of that, I met Kasey there, who would become my girlfriend, then my wife.”

“I didn’t really see myself leaving Charley’s. I felt like this was it. And then they offered me the general manager position. I was 29 years old at that point, approaching 30, and I thought, “Where’s my career going?”

“Then I saw what the GM pay was and the sacrifices you had to make with your time, I thought, This is it? This is the top rung of the ladder? And is this enough? $130,000, $150,000 a year, when I’m taking care of multimillionaires? These guys on the other side of the table were wearing Rolexes and driving Porsches, and they’re young and they’re excited, and that’s where I wanted to be.”

“And then I had my three best friends, Elliot Leniton and Josh, and AJ, all these guys sending me pictures of their paychecks at USHA. I felt like it was God cracking open a door, and it was up to me to enter. But I was complacent and comfortable. I knew what it was going to demand of my time and the sacrifices, because I had done door-to-door sales and other sales as well. So I had my suspicions and I had my guard up, but once I saw AJ doing it for a year at that point, and the success he was having, it was kind of like, “Bro, anything you do, I beat you at. So if you can do this, I can do it better.”

“And that’s when I took the leap. That’s the hardest part. It really is that leap, betting on yourself, because I left a six-figure position to bet on myself and my own abilities. But the way I looked at it was if I fail at this, with my resume and now a decade into fine dining, what restaurant wouldn’t hire me if I wanted to go back to hospitality? I thought that at some point in my life, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to take these kinds of risks. I could have a baby or two, or three, and a mortgage payment and all these bills and expenses, and then you can’t leap at these opportunities because you’re trapped.”

“So I decided, I’ve got to jump now, parachute or not. And then I saw this quote that said, “At first, they’ll ask why you’re doing it. Later, they’ll ask how you did it.” You have to prove yourself. And so when I came into this opportunity with USHA, I told myself, you have to give this the college effort, the effort that you never gave college – four years of everything I’ve got. I didn’t finish college because I didn’t have th.e vision that it was worth it. But here, at USHEALTH Advisors, I could see it. I could see what happens after four to five years here. And after four years, if this wasn’t everything that AJ said it was, I’d leave. But I told myself I’m going to give it everything I have for four years.”

“And I did. Looking back, I don’t think I left anything on the table. I never put so much attention, emphasis, intention, whatever you want to call it, into anything in my life as I did my first few years of USHA, because I saw what was possible. And the sad part is, working in hospitality all those years, I was in a rut of not being the very best version of myself. I was smoking cigarettes. I was drinking heavily without even recognizing it. We would go out after work and have two or three beers. But when you’re doing that three or four nights a week, I mean, that’s over 50 beers a month. Those were the people I was hanging out with.”

“It’s that power of association we talk about so much here at USHA, which is so impactful. Your inner circle, who you associate with, means a lot. I don’t care if you’re 20, or 40, or even if you’re super-influential at 15, or 16 years old; it doesn’t matter. If you hang out with a bunch of losers, you’re going to be a loser. You hang out with a bunch of people drinking, doing drugs, you’re going to do the same thing.”

“So, the beginning at USHA wasn’t easy for me. I still had all these bad habits, and I was expecting change, but I wasn’t changing anything about myself, outside of the office. And there were times in my first year where I hit walls in my sales, big time. I was getting $0 paychecks. I was worried: Am I going to make rent this month? Where am I going to find the money for this and that?”

“One week early on, we had a Friday sales meeting like we always do. And all these agents and leaders are holding up their big association checks and weekly and monthly checks, and there I was, I didn’t make a paycheck that week. And it wasn’t for a lack of effort; I just had a lot of disappointment. I had a big policy that got declined. I had another one that withdrew, whatever. It was just a bad couple of weeks, and it was near the end of the month.”

“After that Friday sales meeting, AJ and Josh invited Kasey and me to dinner. They were going out with their wives to some nice place. But I made up a story that Kasey had plans with her mom, or whatever, but the reality was I was broke. I needed to work, and I didn’t want to tell them. So they left. It was a Friday night, and the office was empty. I worked until about 9:30 or 10 p.m. I didn’t get anything out of it. I had nothing in my pipeline, nothing positive. This dark cloud was hanging over me. So I got in my car, stopped at the 7-11 right outside my apartment complex, where I knew the guy at the front counter by name, because I was in there, if not every night, then every other night, buying a six-pack and a pack of cigarettes.”

“And I sat in the parking lot of my apartment complex, and I could look up at the window of my apartment, and I’m sitting there just cracking one beer after another, smoking cigarettes, tears running down my cheeks, and I’m watching the shadow of my then girlfriend at the time, Kasey, walk around our apartment.”

“We had been together, I want to say, maybe six or seven years, and I felt like such a failure. And so I went upstairs, and Kasey could tell I had been drinking, and she smelled the smoke all over my jacket, and I collapsed on her shoulder and started crying and told her, ‘I don’t know if this is it. Am I going to make it?’ And I started to have those doubts again. Should I go back to Charley’s one night a week? I could make $400 or $500 a night behind the bar, and at least that’s my car payment or the rent, or whatever.”

“But Kasey was having none of it. She told me, “You can’t go back to Charley’s. I burned all of your tuxedos.” We used to wear tuexdos at Charley’s. She said, “You told me that you were going to make this work.” And so my dad was having a bonfire, and the tuxedos were disgusting because at Charley’s, there was an open fire pit inside the restaurant, so you smelled like smoke. Kasey says, “The suits were stinking up the closet. So, I burned them.” But it showed her faith in me. She literally burned the bridge to me going back. I told her this was it, I was going to make it work. And then she really dug the knife in when she was comparing me to my boys,” If Josh can make it work, if Elliot’s making it work, if AJ’s making it work, why can’t you?”

“She told me a lot of the things I needed to hear that I wasn’t doing and the places where I could be better. And she was absolutely right. It was an epiphany where I woke up the next day, and that was it. I started doing this 6 AM, 60-day challenge where I was at the gym every day, for 60 straight days. I got super intentional with everything I was doing to become the very best version of myself and with my faith. I couldn’t remember the last time I got on my knees and prayed.”

“More importantly, I wasn’t leading Kasey to faith, to God, to the way that I was raised. I started having success at USHA, but then Kasey and I had a really big falling out the year I was promoted to field training agent. I was now a leader, organically recruited my team, had a couple of guys from Charley’s, and a couple of guys from high school. So I started my team with about five organic agents and built it from there. But Kasey was not a priority for me. It was all USHA. I was all in on that. I was so obsessed with it that Kasey got put on the back burner, and our relationship suffered. We split up after eight years of being together, and it was a really dark time in my life.”

“I had her leave my apartment, but we were still dog sharing and so were still connected, and eventually everything came back around, because of my faith and God. I needed to get back to God.”

“I said to Kasey at some point, I don’t think we should get back to living together. I don’t want to do any of that, but I think we should start going to church on Sundays together and see where it goes. And she said, “It’s funny you say that. I’ve been going to the church outside our apartment complex every weekend for probably the past two months. I said, “No, you haven’t. I’ve been there every Sunday.” She said, “Yeah, I go to the Saturday night service.”

“And like I said, I was a lot to blame for this. I wasn’t the one leading her to God. So it was time for me to do that. The following year, I went on a Wild-At-Heart trip, a men’s retreat where you’re out in the middle of the woods without any technology, it’s just you and a bunch of guys being vulnerable for an entire week. We had this one excursion where you are on a kayak, and they give you a notebook and a pen. You’re there writing down what God is speaking to you and what you are feeling. I felt God talking to me and came back into the office with a new vision and a new direction. That was a big turning point in my life for sure. It reset my morals – what it is I’m really working towards – what kind of impact I can have – to lead all these agents, to lead these young men, these young women.”

“That same year, I got baptized, and Kasey got baptized too. I’m so proud of that. I feel it’s so important to be grounded in faith, more than any of the financial aspects of this job. Don’t get me wrong, it’s such a good feeling to see a young kid come to me, who has gone from rags to riches, and he’s hugging me with tears in his eyes, and telling me, “This is all because of you. Thanks for all you’ve done for me.” That’s great too. But I feel like the faith aspect of it, that’s for a lifetime.”

“It’s how I look at life now, it’s like God put me in this position to be a bright light in a dark place for someone. We’re all here to find success, but what does success mean to you? Success has a different meaning for everyone. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t come here for the paycheck and financial freedom, but I think your why changes as you start to grow in this career and become a different version of yourself. And I think you realize your full potential and the impact you can have in your community and for your family. All the people I’ve been able to help, including my mom. Just a few months ago, I was able to check off a big box on one of my goal sheets. I surprised my mom by buying her a brand new Lexus SUV, and did the whole thing with the big red bow and the family there.”

“My mother’s done so much for so many people. She’s the last person to eat and the first person to give up a plate of food. She always raved about the Lexus she had in high school; she loved it. Now she has a brand new one, from me. And it’s like if I can do that after working six or seven years here at USHA, what’s it going to be like in 15 years? I gave that restaurant 10 years, a decade of my life, and I didn’t even know who I was anymore. And it’s like, now, here at USHEALTH Advisors, why would I not give more than that to my own business, my own brands, my own everything?

“Every single year, this career allows me to be able to do more for so many. And that’s my purpose on this earth, I feel, to be a provider. I want to be that provider for people, some of whom I haven’t even met yet, like my children. And the same with Kasey. She and I got married in October of last year, and I was able to have the wedding of my dreams with her. I took her and my family out to Lake Tahoe for the entire week. We rented a massive Airbnb, and we all stayed in the same house. It was beautiful. I want Kasey to have the life she deserves, drive the car she deserves, live in the house she deserves, and if that means I have to sacrifice some sleep or a few weekends here and there, so be it.”

“I want to be able to one day meet my maker and for him to say, “Good job, man. You killed it. You did what I set out for you to do.” And I really feel like that as long as I have that mentality and God knows where my heart is, then I’m always going to continue to thrive. I feel like my cup is going to continue to be not just filled, but to run over. As long as I have this selfless mentality and help other people get what they want in this world, then I know that I’ll always get what I want.”

Thanks, JP!

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky