Let’s keep it simple.
All you need: strength of mind and heart, impeccable character, and an unwavering work ethic. Simple yes, easy no.
But that’s what it takes to build a business from the ground up. Yes, it can be done. People do it every day. The struggles, the scars, the ups, the downs, the inevitable success if you follow the game plan, that’s the stuff people want to read about. Why? Because stories matter.
Everyone has a story.
Welcome to Mark Brodinsky Storytelling.
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Mark Brodinsky Storytelling: You Can Always Overcome
“Thank God for all I missed, cause it led me here to this.” – Lyrics to This, by Darius Rucker
How many of us are exactly where we dreamed we’d be? You may be happy, but are you now doing what you thought you’d be doing when you were a child, when you were wondering, visualizing, or imagining your future?
I’ll take the chance to say, probably not. Did you dream of being an insurance agent? Hmm, there’s a question to ponder.
So let’s jump right into this one. Meet Jordan Jones. His cousin is Jalen Ramsey. You’ll get to know Jordan in a minute. But if you’re not familiar with Jalen Ramsey, here you go, straight from Google: Jalen Ramsey is an elite American football safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL, known for his shutdown coverage skills. Drafted 5th overall by the Jaguars (playing cornerback), in 2016, the 8-time Pro Bowler and 3-time First-Team All-Pro has played for the Jaguars, Rams, Dolphins, and currently the Steelers, winning Super Bowl LVI with the Rams in 2022.
Jordan’s uncle, and someone Jordan considers one of his finest mentors, is Jalen’s dad, Lamont Ramsey. It’s not hard to surmise that football is pulsating through the family’s blood. The gridiron is where the family grew up; it’s the place they call home.
But home is where you make it, and today, Jordan makes his home as a very successful health insurance agent and team leader at USHEALTH Advisors, a real superstar in this business. But it doesn’t mean Jordan didn’t want to go pro in that other massive industry.
“I was dead set on making it to the NFL,” says Jordan. “And if you had told me maybe five years ago that I would be in health insurance, I would have told you, ‘You’re a liar, I would not have believed you at all.’ And Jordan had good reason not to believe; he was beating the odds and on the path to prominence in football.
“I was a zero-star recruit,” says Jordan. (A zero-star recruit is a high school athlete who is unscouted, unranked, and many times overlooked by major colleges, yet they can make it to the pros, just ask Cam Ward or Cooper Kupp.) “I ended up as a walk-on at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. I had a few other looks, and I was talking to Louisville. That was the biggest school I was talking to, and I was also on the verge of having an offer from Kennesaw State. But another guy ended up going, and so they pulled my scholarship. So long story short, I ended up taking my talents to the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, where one of my former high school teammates ended up. So it made sense.”
“I got to UTC, and I told my mom and dad, I really don’t want you guys to be paying for school; however, if you guys just give me at least one semester to prove myself, it will happen, I’ll get the scholarship. It was a weight on my shoulders. But the school is in-state, so I was going to get the Hope Scholarship anyway (a merit-based financial aid program), which definitely helped with some expenses, and by the second semester, I told my parents I’m going to have this scholarship.”
But as Jordan quickly learned, the rigor of playing college football is much different from high school. For every level, there’s another devil.
“I get there, to training camp, day one, and I was in my dorm room crying,” says Jordan. “I was like, I don’t know if this is for me. I was cramping from head to toe; I had a full-body cramp. So I lay in my bed and thought, this is not for me. Day two of fall camp, I go out there, and I don’t even get a rep. Fast forward to two-and-a-half weeks in, and I still haven’t gotten any reps. Finally, they call my name, probably halfway through one of those practices, and I get a rep, and it’s a pretty good play, and then I get pulled out again. Fast forward now to week three. I’ve still got no reps, and I’m doing all the trash stuff that the walk-ons do.”
“And then one day we have to do punishment in camp, punishment is us as the whole defensive back group, running around the field, non-stop. And I was the only one who didn’t stop. Everyone else did, except me. I found the will to survive. And the coach rewarded me for that. He said, “Okay, Jordan, since you’re the only one that didn’t stop, you’re going to get all the reps today.”
“I was rewarded with an opportunity at cornerback. And then going into the first game of the season, I was number two on the depth chart. Halfway through the season, I ended up starting a few games. I didn’t start against the University of Alabama, but I ended up playing as a true freshman against Alabama. And I emphasize true freshman, because it’s kind of unheard of to play that as a walk-on. And I got to play my first snaps against the future Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Jalen Hurts. That was pretty cool for me. That was kind of a light-bulb moment, “Hey, I can do this.” And again, it all stemmed from just being a kid who didn’t stop. I really worked hard to get there and obviously I had a lot of people who trained me for that moment.”
One of the people who helped Jordan reach that moment was one of the most important people in his life.
“My uncle Lamont is Jalen Ramsey’s dad, and he is the one who trained me from high school through college and was also a father figure/mentor in my life, and deserves a lot of credit for the man I am today. Those hours and long nights in the gym are what helped shape my perspective of life, along with giving me real-life skill sets that I still use today.”
All the training paid off.
If you do a little research on Jordan Jones, you’ll find a great article published in 2021 for the University of Chattanooga Tennessee. In the article, Jordan’s coach, Lorenzo Ward, who at the time was the university’s defensive coordinator, gives Jordan some serious praise. Ward said, “Pound-for-pound—and I’ve told him this—Jordan Jones is probably the best cornerback I’ve ever coached.”
That’s saying a lot. Understand Ward’s coaching history, he previously coached 16 defensive backs drafted by NFL teams, including a pair selected to NFL Pro Bowl rosters: New England’s Stephon Gilmore and Green Bay’s Jaire Alexander. Ward’s nearly 30-year coaching dossier also included time on the NFL Oakland Raiders’ staff and a stint as the interim head coach at the University of Louisville.
But all the praise in the world couldn’t get what Jordan was looking for: a shot at the NFL.
“So fast forward through college, I have a lot of looks now, like I’m starting to get a lot of buzz,” says Jordan. “I was an All-Conference player, and finally ended up getting the scholarship so my parents didn’t have to pay for school and all that good stuff. That was a blessing.”
“Coming into my junior year, I have a lot of buzz, and as I said, you wouldn’t be able to tell me I wasn’t going to the NFL based on my performance. Now I have an agent, and all the right things are starting to align. In the meantime, my cousin, Jalen Ramsey, has become a top-five NFL corner and, at the time, became the highest-paid cornerback in the league.”
“So all the connections, all the things that are aligning, the people that are training me, just the people in my corner, my coaches at the time, it’s all aligning. ‘I’ll at least get a shot,’ I told myself. And once you get a shot, it’s on you. And that’s how it’s always been for me. As long as I get a shot, I’m going to prove to anyone that I’m not going to stop. I’m always going to be the best; the cream will eventually rise to the top. So I stayed persistent and stayed the course, and kept playing well. And then COVID happened. I’m supposed to leave school that year. When COVID happened, it created another issue.”
“The issue became with the NFL, as far as moving forward from COVID, how many people they allow in the camps, it became very much a close niche of people who got a chance to get in. You really had to be a guy that was on their radar. They weren’t giving too many opportunities to anyone else. So I still have a pretty good senior season, but I don’t get a lot of targets. And as a defensive back, playing corner, you make your name by getting targets and being able to make interceptions. I made my name in my junior year, which is still in the record books to this day. I had, I think, 17 pass breakups. So I proved myself that junior year and thought it would carry to my senior year, but that’s where they barely threw the ball my way at all.”
And that way for Jordan was about to change.
“So I didn’t really have the opportunity to showcase a lot of talent during my senior year. I’m already playing at a small school. I’m still in a D-I program, but it’s not the University of Tennessee; it’s the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. That’s a big difference. I still had an agent, and we were talking to teams, and all that kind of stuff. Then the NFL draft comes, and I’m super hopeful. One of my teammates, Cole Strange, gets drafted in the first-round, which is unheard of coming from UTC. We definitely have good draft picks, but a first-round guy, wow, that just doesn’t happen. So Cole goes first round, I’m like, yeah, this is definitely going to be a great year for us.”
The NFL draft lasts for three days, and fast-forward toward the end, I’m still hopeful, but no phone calls for me. Again, it’s not uncommon for this story. I’m a long shot guy anyway, so I’m like, “Okay, cool. I’m definitely going to get a rookie camp invite. I was almost certain that I was going to get one of those. My agent’s telling me that, my trainer’s telling me that. And long story short, a few hours after the draft, we’re waiting. That’s typically where the big buzz time is, where all the guys that didn’t get drafted start getting those phone calls. I have my phone on loudspeaker and everything, ready to go.”
“And then, nothing.”
“Two days after the draft, I still haven’t gotten a call. About three days after the draft has ended, I do get two calls. It’s a rookie minicamp invite to come to the Eagles and then go to the Saints. However, neither of these opportunities gives me the chance to put on an NFL helmet. So for me, that was the demoralizing part. I’m a guy who I know is a hard worker. I know if I can just get an opportunity, if I can just get my shot, I’m going to prove myself because that’s what I’ve always done. I’m always going to get in a room, and I’m always going to elevate myself to be the best person in that room, and not to have the shot to get in the room, well, that was really tough.”
Tough indeed. A shot, but no shot, which is what the mini-camp really represented, and it meant it was time for Jordan to get back to Nashville and get serious about another career. He’d still be open if a call came, and Jordan kept training, but he could feel his optimism waning.
“So I’m back home in Nashville, and I’m thinking, what am I going to do next?” says Jordan.
Understand, the world of sports, while challenging, was Jordan’s safe haven. Safe from having to deal much with the other challenge he faced in his life – a stutter he had since childhood.
“It was a big challenge to overcome, says Jordan, “For me growing up, and even playing college football, and throughout my recruiting process of having to go meet head coaches and things of that nature, there was very much a time I had to really prepare to even say my first and last name. So going up to a coach and having him say, “Hey, hey son, what’s your name?” Sometimes I froze. And so my greatest challenge has been overcoming my speech impediment, which I’ve gotten very good at now, but it’s just the simple fact of the mental block it can have on you, and how it can hinder you. My dad stutters, and my little brother stutters. And I tell them all the time, you can overcome, but it takes hard work.”
“So back home in Nashville after the NFL draft, I’m filling out job forms and all that kind of stuff, and I get a text from someone who at the time was our Division Leader, Doug Krull. I thought, what is this? And honestly, I didn’t respond the first time because it was around July 4th, so I ignored it. Then I get maybe four more texts from this guy, and I’m like, okay, I guess I’ll respond and see what it’s all about.”
“So I go in for the interview, and the whole time all Doug is talking about is this guy named Frankie B. After the interview I go up to Frankie and I introduce myself with my stutter and I’m like, “Hey,”, then I almost stopped, but I find the words that come out smooth enough, and say, “Hey, I’m Jordan Jones, and I just wanted to introduce myself. Frankie says, “Gotcha, nice to meet you. What do you do currently?” I told him, “I’m training for the NFL, but still waiting on a call back.” His eyes kind of light up because he played football too, and he says “Well, if that’s not happening, wait for a text from us for a second interview, and we’ll let you know if we’re bringing you back.”
“I get home and get a text to come back to USHA. I was offered the opportunity, but praying I get on Frankie’s team because he’s the best and I always want to be around the best. The rest is history, as they say, because I got on Frankie’s team and I produced $185,000 annual volume in sales in my first 13 weeks, which got me a seat at the table at this Michelin star restaurant and then a trip to San Diego to see the Chargers game, because Frankie was taking his top team members there. Anyone who did $100,000 AV during the time frame got to go, and I made it.”
There was success right out of the gate because Jordan got his “shot” and this time, and showed what he was capable of. Instead of breaking up passes as a cornerback, he turned into what you could call a “wide receiver”, catching health insurance clients and making sales. Jordan also credits his success to his Uncle Amos Howard and Aunt Yolanda. “My uncle Amos is my mentor currently and has helped me scale as an entrepreneur,” says Jordan.
That was the fall of 2022, and this year Jordan is leading a top-five Field Training Team at USHEALTH Advisors, and his personal production puts him in the Top 20 in the nation.
“In my life, despite disappointments, I continue to be amazed by the opportunities that God has put in front of me, the people that he’s allowing me to impact. But God is still working on me, and he’s still working within my story and still providing me a platform every single day.”
“I want to be remembered for my legacy. And again, everyone is creating a legacy, whether you realize it or not. Every single day, you are creating your legacy. And I want my legacy to be the impact that I have upon people. The simple fact is that I love to show people there’s always an opportunity, that you can achieve anything that you desire. I think that’s what my legacy will be.”
“And it’ll also be how I touch people, how they smile when they see me. I make them feel good, I make them feel heard, and I give them inspiration to go and get whatever it is they desire. And to teach them that anything you can visualize and keep at the forefront of your mind, you can achieve. And no matter the obstacles, you can always overcome.”
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky