It’s all yours for the taking. Focus, give, serve, grow, and do it all over again daily.
That’s how you build a meaningful business and a life of freedom and choices. Stand up to the challenges, for there will be many, and power through each one as they come.
Step by step, layer by layer, scar by scar you build something incredible. Because nothing great happens without struggle.
That’s your story.
Everyone has a story.
I am Mark Brodinsky and this is Storytelling for Business.
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Storytelling for Business: No Bad Days
“It all comes down to supporting people. People know I’m here for them and their biggest fan. That takes you very far in life.” – Haylee Hehl
So far, and still such a long, long way to go. Haylee Hehl has learned the secret to success is focusing on what you can do for others, even when your own struggle is real.
Haylee, now a Field Sales Leader with USHEALTH Advisors, has been with the company for only 3-1/2 years, but she has already accomplished so much, with nearly $3.5 million in personal production and leading her teams to more than $15 million, Haylee has been a bright light for so many.
Even as she was living in the dark, not so much because of circumstance, but by necessity.
“When I first started this a little more than three years ago, I suffered from vertigo, a very severe case. I worked for about three or four months, and then I was bedridden because my vertigo was so bad. I was just about to give up on this opportunity. I just thought, “You know what? This isn’t for me.” The vertigo was being triggered by the overhead lights and the computer. So I’m like, “How can I do this if I have to build my career on my computer?”
“So I was just giving up, before USHEALTH Advisors, I was a vice-principal and I was going to accept a principal position to open a brand new high school. I was walking away. And two days before I was basically leaving, my mom and a young girl named Susan that worked with me here said, “What are you doing? Education’s always going to be there. You’re not someone who gives up that easily. You told us you were going to give it a year. You can fight through this.” And so I was like, “You know what? You’re right.” It was my health that made me feel like I couldn’t push through and make this opportunity work, not the finances. It wasn’t people around me being negative, it wasn’t my work ethic. It was my vertigo that was holding me back in this opportunity.”
“I hit my 100k milestone in nine weeks, but then my vertigo came in real strong. I remember I was leaving the office and saying, “Hey, my vertigo’s coming on, but it usually takes a week to pass. I’ll be back in a few days. I just need to ride it out.” And the next thing I know, three and a half months later, I couldn’t even get out of bed. It was a real struggle because I couldn’t even open up my computer. That was not even an option.”
“So I would try to work maybe a few hours a day as much as I could, but it was rough. So I left, walking away saying, “I’ll be back in a week.” And then three and a half months later, I could still barely get out of bed. And thankfully, my Division Leader, Mike Santos, really believed in what I could become because typically most of us would probably let that person go after that time. I don’t know what he saw to still allow me to stick around, but I’m thankful he did.”
Sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine. Haylee kept the faith.
Haylee says she learned to use some items to help with vertigo. “I have a bunch of screen protectors, a blue light screen blocker, and a big plastic shield that goes over the monitors on my desk.”
So, though she sometimes still struggled with vertigo, she adapted and thrived.
Grateful for a second chance, Haylee, who considers herself a risk-taker, says once she started to see success happen, about a year later, she decided she wanted a change of scenery as well.
“I knew I wanted to make some sort of change. I saw an opportunity out in Vegas, I knew they had no female leaders and I didn’t know anyone. I went out there in March of 2020 just to visit. So I told Jason Greif, my Regional Leader, that I was just going to go visit a few offices. I was planning on going to Vegas and Arizona. I just wanted to explore. And he was like, “All right, well, when will you come back?” I said, “In a few weeks.” I went out there and March 16th or 17th and two days later, COVID happened.”
“So here I am in this office, I don’t really know anyone. And again, it was God saying, well you’re stuck now, you’re moving. I have really bad asthma and we didn’t know a lot about COVID, so I didn’t want to travel if I didn’t need to. All along I was just trying to strategically place myself where I could make the most impact. But a month later, the world was still shut down. I’m so thankful for the opportunity in Vegas. They even kept the lights off for me there to help with vertigo. The Vegas team pushed me to limits I didn’t know I had in many different aspects – first and foremost moving to a city alone and just being by myself for the first time.”
“I’m such a fast-paced person, but I had no choice but to sit and reflect on life. I was out there for about a year and knew I couldn’t start my life there long-term. And then my brother-in-law, who’s been in my life since I was five, went for a cancer scan. He had been diagnosed with cancer about 10 years ago, was going for his final scan, and had been cancer free for about 10 years, but everything came back very aggressively. So I was like, “I’ve got to go home. I’ve got to go see him.”
Putting family first, Haylee decided to make the move home back to St. Petersburg, to be near her brother-in-law, (who is currently still battling cancer), her mom, and other four sisters, whom she says she’s very close with. Haylee says she gives a lot of credit to her mom for her current success.
“My mom taught me so much. My parents got divorced a week after I was born. So I was never raised in a family with both of them. She got married shortly after, but that guy was abusive so she packed up me and my four sisters in the middle of the night and we left. And then when I was about five, she remarried my stepfather, who is truly my father figure. He’s one amazing human being. My mom raised us, girls, on faith and prayer and having a positive outlook, which now, if you were to ask me, even though I went through days when police were knocking on our doors or just some real traumatic things were happening, I always say I’ve never had a bad day in my life.”
“I’m very thankful through all the obstacles, especially the life I grew up in. There’s usually at least one sibling in the family that gets a little crazy with what we went through, but all my four sisters are very successful, and just really have their life together. And it comes down to being raised by a mom that no matter our circumstances, taught us we’ve got to show up every day for ourselves.”
Showing up and making sure her agents know their roles and responsibilities is important to Haylee, as she navigates her role as a Field Sales Leader with USHA.
“I’m just very passionate about what I do and I’m very direct, but everyone around me knows it’s because I’m trying to push you to be better. I’m not mean or aggressive in that manner like some people might portray that word – it’s more so I’m going to tell you where you’re slacking off and how you can be better as a human and with your business. My team’s called Empower. I’m very big on empowering people to do better, be better and push themselves out of their limits. I also have a company called Female Gang. I’m very big on not just empowering females, but pushing people to step out of their comfort zone and step into whoever they desire.”
Desire, hard work, and being a guide, and a leader, are what Haylee believes drive most of her success in business and life.
“Culture is huge for me here at USHA. I always say people come for the money, but they stay for the culture. When I know one of my agents should be in the office, I’m able to call them at 8:01 am and not yell at them, but be like, “Where the hell are you?” And they know it’s out of love because they also know at the end of the day, I am their biggest fan. I’m celebrating every single benchmark they’re hitting, every single milestone. They know I’m truly here to help them push to a level that they don’t even know that they could accomplish themselves.”
It’s obvious Haylee cares and wants to see everyone around her succeed, but she says that requires sacrifice and going above and beyond. It always does.
“I’m not the top producer in the entire company, but I always say being great makes you excel, but it doesn’t make you the best. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to deliver a miracle. When I think of Parita Patel, (the number one agent at USHEALTH Advisors in 2022), she’s delivered a miracle. She’s changed the game in this company.”
“Where I am now, it’s all about leadership. I have the desire to be the greatest leader I can be because I’m impacting my agents ten times more and changing their lives. Everyone wants to be a top producer, but that’s not me, I feel like my purpose is a lot different these days as a Field Sales Leader.”
It’s the power of the many versus the one. Alone we can do amazing, things, but together we can make the impossible, possible. Especially when you have the right environment, culture, and leadership. Haylee says she is living to watch the impossible happen every day.
“I mean, we’re fighting number for a top 15 position in the company as a Field Sales Leader team. I started the year with six agents as a new team and we’ve grown tremendously to 50. But I think also there’s a lot of power in my agency. The fact that I always trust the process. It’s not about me, it’s about we. It’s never about Haylee. It’s always about what can we do and we’re going to make it happen. So, I’ve been very blessed that I just keep being blessed with amazing teams and trusting the process with me.”
It all begins from the inside, the process of believing in yourself, believing it before you see it, and going through all the challenges that life puts in your path. Vertigo almost ended her career at USHA before it even got off the ground, and while Haylee still battles with that challenge, she’s found a way to manage it, give back, and take the risk to go above and beyond.
“My best piece of advice is to think to yourself, are you willing to sacrifice who you are for who you could be? I think that’s the biggest thing, whether it’s the risk I take, or trusting the process. I’m always making sacrifices because I know who I want to be and I try to put that on other people by empowering them, that’s why my team’s called Empower. I’m always trying to make them realize the sacrifices they can make that are going to truly benefit them in who they want to be and where they want to go. So, it’s the question we all have to ask ourselves, are you willing to sacrifice who you are for who you want to be?”
It’s always about rising above and being there for those that need you the most, and so much of leadership is about attitude, belief, accountability and never let ’em see you sweat. Haylee says she wants to give her all so that others can have all they desire and know that whatever happens, it has not come to stay it has come to pass.
“I have the mindset of I’ve never had a bad day in my entire life and I’ve been through a lot from childhood until now. I might have a bad moment, but I’ve never had a bad day ever.”
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Your Storyteller,
Mark Brodinsky
Make USHEALTH Advisors your next career! Click and apply: https://www.ushacareers.com/apply/
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