Uncategorized Archives - Life & The Sunday Series

The Sunday Series (152), with Mark Brodinsky

June 25, 2017 By markbrodinsky 4 Comments

Never discount the power of the human spirit. Through strife, setbacks or challenges it is always there, present, ready to rise to the challenge. You need only invoke the power through faith and fortitude.

We all possess this strength, but sometimes in the midst of struggle we forget, and it lies dormant, waiting to rise and conquer. What human beings can accomplish and withstand sometimes defies explanation.

Yet in our darkest hour there is always light. The journey into that light creates an amazing story.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

The Sunday Series (151): Hope From Henita

“If I can give one piece of information to help you help yourself, then I’ve done my job. I’m paying it forward.” – Henita R. Schiff

Forward is the only direction Henita Schiff knows how to go, after all she’s suffered enough setbacks to last a lifetime for any one person, maybe enough for many.

But life for Henita was much more than the issues which tried to keep her down. It was also about wonder and earthly magic.

“When I was 12-years-old my parents took us on a trip to see the world,” says Henita. “The biggest thing was to teach us to be accepting of other people. We visited England, France, Italy and then ended up in Israel. I can just tell you when I opened the window in the hotel and I saw Jerusalem, I said to my mom, ‘I’m going to live here.’ I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but I had to come back. I knew I had to go back.”

Eventually upon graduating high school Henita made good on her promise to go back and live in what is known as the land of milk and honey. Israel called, Henita listened and a love affair with the land of her heritage began.

But even taking up residence in the land she loved couldn’t keep her health issues at bay, problems which had dogged her since childhood.

Henita says it all began with some of her earliest memories as a child. “I remember being 4-or-5 years old at the time and being in the hospital, not really understanding what was going on with me. I remember getting lots of shots in my legs to the point I could barely walk. Though I was well taken care of by my nurses, I was scared.”

The problem was with Henita’s kidneys. From the time she was a young child she had issues and not long after she got to Israel, the health problem which had plagued her most of her life, reared its ugly head. After multitudes of testing and biopsies the doctors diagnosed the issue as glomerulonephritis, a group of diseases that injure the part of the kidney that filters blood. If the illness continues, the kidneys may stop working completely, resulting in kidney failure.

The doctors in Israel gave Henita her diagnosis and a warning – don’t have children, don’t get pregnant. The doctors didn’t feel her body could handle the stress. Warning understood, then ignored.

Not long after her latest health scare, Hentia got married in Israel. Three years later she and her husband learned she was pregnant. The doctors who advised against it, were none too happy, letting her know that if her kidneys shut down they would have to make a decision – her life or the baby’s – and they had decided they would save Henita.

Halfway through the pregnancy what the doctors feared came to fruition. One of Henita’s kidneys shut down and she had to have infusions every few days and go on bedrest. By the 9th month she was rushed to the hospital. With both kidneys failing, the doctors induced labor. Fortunately for Henita, her son was born healthy, and she was going to live, but the struggle was far from over.

They say health is wealth. Refusing to allow her health issues be her downfall, or rob her of the riches of life, Henita pressed on. She remained in Israel for four more years, raising her son while her husband served in the Israeli army.

But by the time she was in her mid-twenties the doctors told Henita she could no longer wait, she needed to go home to the U.S. and get on dialysis.

Her health failing, her marriage on the rocks, it was Henita’s mom who eventually came to her rescue. Her mother had gone through testing and it turned out she was a match for her daughter for a kidney transplant. The surgery was a huge success, but the years of health problems had taken their toll on Henita’s marriage. By 1996 Henita and her husband called it quits.

They say God never gives you more than you can handle, yet he can sometimes be prolific at testing your mettle. A few years after her first marriage ended, Henita wed again and it wouldn’t be long before her body decided to collapse once more. First her kidney transplant suddenly failed and then in 2005, a series of strokes, four small ones and one big one, left Henita with blurred vision, and the challenge of learning to read and write again. Life had Henita in a tailspin.

Back on dialysis and with a mind fighting to grasp the most basic concepts of life – Henita fought back once again. Transported by her mother and her mother-in-law to sessions where she would learn to read and write again – Henita, still a few years shy of her 50th birthday – found the inner strength to persevere. She not only learned the basic skills again, but she battled all the way back to gain her independence – in the form of her driver’s license – and the ability to take control of her life. Though the health issues played a part in her second marriage ending in divorce in 2006, Henita had done what she could, proving to herself and everyone else she could come all the way back…again.

By 2007 Henita was back to work in the financial services industry, but wanted to give back in a different manner and so decided to start her own business as a benefits advisor for Medicare. It’s a niche and a way to give back that Henita says speaks to her soul.

“I love what I do,” says Henita. “I love to teach and people appreciate the knowledge. I have realized how much I love empowering people. I believe people should never stop learning, nor should I. Empowering yourself with knowledge is the best thing anyone can do for themselves.”

“I was never angry about my health issues, just decided to fix it and do what I needed to do. My biggest thing was to always protect my son who unfortunately grew up with a not-so-well mommy. But it worked out, because he’s an awesome guy and my daughter in law and grandchildren are equally as awesome.”

Henita says her challenges in life have taught her so much. “I think the lesson I’ve learned is never give up,” she says. “Always challenge what is being told, or said to you. After my big stroke they said I would never be able to work again, or drive. I just said NO, this is not going to be my life.”

Henita’s message for others is simple: “We need to cherish the moments. Learn from the mistakes, don’t waste the energy on trying to change things you cannot change. Surround yourself with positive people and know that life is your personal journey and you’re the one in control of what you do, what you say and how you let everything that comes into your life affect you. I also think it’s about no judgement in life. You have no idea what someone is going through. But when it comes to our happiness, we are in charge of so much of it. How we feel, how we take things in, how we decide, react, every little thing is up to us. Believe in the power of prayer. I pray someone will read this and be given a little light, a little encouragement, a little hope.”

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

(If you want to contact Henita you can reach her at hrschiff@gmail.com)

Author: The Sunday Series. Real Stories of Courage, Hope & Inspiration, Volume I (https://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Mark-Brodinsky-Stories-Inspiration-ebook/dp/B0722MJL55/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494160949&sr=8-2&keywords=the+sunday+series)

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://ww w.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

Join the Tribe: Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Inspiring Company Stories: (http://www.ushacareers.com/category/inspirational-stories/)

For more info on using Mark to share your story, markbrodinsky@gmail.com/443-865-2795

The Sunday Series (151), with Mark Brodinsky

June 4, 2017 By markbrodinsky 1 Comment

In this life one of the greatest keys to happiness is to realize one simple fact: you are who you are and unlike anyone else. Yet the great challenge of this existence is to live up to that responsibility, to simply be YOU.

Much of the drama in the journey of life is to stay on that path – and open to its possibilities, with every distraction and diversion we are apt to face.

If we strive to be the best version of ourselves, with the many failures and successes we will encounter, we will have quite a story to tell.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

The Sunday Series (151): Finding Me

“Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau

Balance. For Nicole Zimmerman that single word was missing from her vocabulary. The world seemed to be on full-tilt. Working to complete her doctorate in physical therapy, starting a new job and watching a 3-year relationship dissolve before her eyes. It was a lot to juggle, emotionally, physically, mentally.

For a young woman in her mid-20’s, the weight of the world was laying heavy. She found herself feeding her body and starving her self-esteem. Nicole says she needed a new beginning.

“I was feeling really low,” says Nicole. “It was a three-year relationship and a bad breakup. Plus I had to take my boards for my physical therapy doctorate, I was newly employed and eating about a pound of pasta every two days, it was ridiculous.”

For Nicole she knew she needed a change, and it was a call to a friend and a conversation that turned things around.

“If you can change your mind you change your life.” – William James

“I contacted my friend Tisana Downing,” says Nicole. “We were talking about getting in shape and she said ‘why don’t you start training with my husband Steve.’ I had no idea what I was in for. I started training three times a week and it was Steve who suggested that I compete in a body building competition. I didn’t know if I was ready to see myself up on stage in a bathing suit, so I went to check it out. One of my friends, Kelly Quinn was competing and she told me, ‘you could totally do this.’ So I decided to give it a shot.”

Nicole turned up the volume and started training harder and more often with Steve and with a nutritionist, Bernie Centrella. Before she knew it, Nicole was training four-days-a-week, then five, then on certain days, twice in a single day, including the early bird special. “On one of the two-a-days I would wake up and meet Steve at the gym at six in the morning,” says Nicole. “It was called fasted cardio. I would do the stepper, or run, or push a sled with weights on it. All with the goal of increasing my heart rate and burning fat. All of this done on an empty stomach to burn the most I could.”

Then there was the food aspect of the training, something called IIFYM, If it fits Your Macros. IIFYM is a method of dieting that revolves around meeting daily macro-nutritional intake targets. That is, you plan your daily meals to provide you with so much protein, carbohydrate, and fat, based on your goal. It’s not easy. Nicole was measuring every portion and eating just the right kinds of meals. “It was a lot of oatmeal, fish, especially cod, which I ate nearly every night for dinner,” says Nicole. “Extra lean turkey, chicken very low in fat, rice cakes, egg whites and my favorite snack, almond butter. It was easier for me then for some people because I have IBS and some other food sensitivities.”

Building muscle, burning fat, eating just the right amounts. Nicole said she was learning a great deal about herself and in the process of transforming her body she was molding her mind, healing her heart and finding she was more than the sum of her parts.

“This type of training has so much more of a mental component,” Nicole says. “People think it’s physical, but you really have to be dedicated and have a steady mindset. My dad and I always talk about not getting too high or too low, about not getting too competitive, doing it for yourself and seeing your own gains. I had to stay consistent to see results.”

“Mind is everything. Muscles – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am, because of my mind.” – Paavo Nurmi, Olympic Legend

The social scene for a woman in her mid-20’s can be quite active and a training regimen like this presented plenty of opportunities to take Nicole off track. “I went to weddings, bachelorette parties, baseball games and didn’t drink and stuck to my diet. If I went out with friends to dinner I couldn’t succumb to the stressors, I had to do what I needed to do for me. It’s a hard battle every competitor faces.”

Nicole is no stranger to battles in her life. Her parents divorced when she was only two, her mom ended up remarrying, bringing two brothers into Nicole’s life and then her dad gave her a scare that nearly rocked her world. “My dad came over to aunt’s house,” recalls Nicole. “I still remember it, I can still see the whole scene. I was sitting there watching Moulin Rouge – my dad looked at me and told me he just came back from the doctor and he started crying, he said he had a brain tumor. It ended up being an AVM, (arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of blood vessels in the brain), but it led to serious anxiety for him and some other scary moments. I was only 10 and I thought I might lose him. I’m 28 now, and I’m so grateful to still have him around.”

Then there was Nicole’s own health scare, just as she was embarking on her college career. “I was diagnosed with fibroadenoma, basically a lump in my breast. I was only 19 at the time. I had no idea what was going on, they simply said to me do you want to biopsy it, or have surgery. I ended up having the surgery to remove it and all was OK. It reminded me of how things could be taken away from you in a second, it reminded me of the importance of life and of what you need to do in this life.”

“Some steps need to be taken alone. It’s the only way to figure out where you really need to be.” – Mandy Hall

Fast forward to August of 2016. The training, the fasting, the hard work, battling back from the mental lows. Nicole challenged herself with all of it and in August of last year found herself standing on stage, competing with other women in a body building competition, the Mid-Atlantic OCB, (Organization of Competitive Body Builders), Battle for the Belt. Nicole took 3rd place in the Bikini Novice and the Bikini Open in Class A. (The classes are set by the height of the competitors).

Buoyed by her success and with a renewed mindset to boot, Nicole decided to give training and competition another shot. Just because she had been here before, didn’t make it any easier. In fact this time around the challenges were more pronounced. “The second time around the mental part was the hardest,” says Nicole. “The first go-round I had a scale and I could weigh myself to monitor my progress. When that training ended I would still weigh myself and I wasn’t happy with the results of gaining a few pounds at a time. This time around Steve took the scale away, I had no idea, I had to rely on Steve simply telling me I was on the right track, without knowing my numbers at all. He also took away my favorite snack. The day he took away my almond butter I choked up with tears,” laughs Nicole.

Although facing tougher mental struggles, it was increased support from her family, friends and the other gym-mates that made the difference. Nicole says: “there were people at the gym I really don’t talk too much, but who would come up to me in the middle of my prep, and say, ‘you look great. I can tell you are going to do this, keep pushing.’ This really affected me and gave me inspiration, especially on those mental low days.”

“Sometimes what you think you know gets in the way of what’s possible. If you believe you can do something you can figure it out.”– Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul

The inspiration worked and it goes both ways. On May 20th, in the OCB Jersey Natural Open, Nicole earned second place in the Bikini Open and this time around she took the top spot in the Bikini Novice, Class A.

Her first-place finish brought her mom, Sherry, to tears and filled her dad, Brian, with tremendous pride. Brian knows all about the results of putting in the hard work to reach a goal. A top-producing salesman and sales leader for most of his adult life, Nicole says her dad taught her to be strong and independent. Now here she was, showing-off her physical muscles and mental fortitude. Nicole says it’s always been her goal to make her parents proud and to set the bar high for both of her brothers, Liam and Jack.

She’s also learned through her tough training and triumphs, that she’s having impact above and beyond what she even imagined when this challenge began. “A lot of people have been coming out of nowhere to see me and ask me for help,” says Nicole.”They are telling me what an inspiration I have been for them. This has helped me 100%. I feel like I’m more comfortable with my daily life, my family, friends and self-esteem. I’ve affected my family in how they eat, exercise and live. But also there’s also this renewed sense of you really can accomplish anything you want to if you put your mind to it. I would tell others not to limit themselves because of fear. Don’t let so-and-so tell you that you can’t, or doubt yourself, because you will fail before you even try. You can surprise yourself. When you really go for it you will get the results you want. Like my dad taught me, you will fail ten times before you succeed even once. You can dictate your life. You have the choice of what you want to do with your life, if it’s not going right you can make the choice to change it.”

For Nicole so much of this journey was about answering the question – who am I? As she engaged in the process of transforming her body and her mind the answer came to light. “This journey helped me to find out who I am,” says Nicole. I’m not there yet, you never really get there because the day you stop learning is the day you stop living. I got my old self back. I tell people think back to when you were a little child, like 5-years-old, when you are really not influenced by anything yet. You are genuine. Go back into that space of being a child to see who you were and you’ll find again who you really are now.

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://ww w.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

Join the Tribe: Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Inspiring Company Stories: (http://www.ushacareers.com/category/inspirational-stories/)

For more info on using Mark to share your story, markbrodinsky@gmail.com/443-865-2795

The Sunday Series (150), with Mark Brodinsky

May 21, 2017 By markbrodinsky Leave a Comment

Any given moment is a chance to change, the opportunity to turn in all around…especially in your mind. Thoughts are things and thinking stuff has the ability to permeate, penetrate and fill the spaces of the universe. In other words, you are what you think and the universe moves in step with those thoughts.

If you don’t like your path, you are the only one with ability to change it. There’s power in your mind and unbelievable lessons and inspiration for all of us when you share your story.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

The Sunday Series (150): Child’s Pose

Always smile back at little children. To ignore them is to destroy their belief that the world is good.
– Pam Brown

You would never know it from her smile. It’s bright and full of life, but for a long time it didn’t seem that Marie Triplett’s world was very good, there was little to smile about. Those days are gone – part of her past – but in the present, her story could save a life.

Marie was only eight days shy of her 4-th birthday when the first man she ever loved, her father, passed away from brain cancer. Her dad was only 22. It was tough enough, but unbelievably the truly tough part, the darkness, was yet to come.

It’s simply incredible in this life what the human spirit can endure. If you don’t believe this for yourself, then you should believe in Marie.

When her father passed he left behind Marie and her two brothers, one 3-years-of-age, the other only 9-months old. Barely crossing over into the second decade of her life Marie’s mom, now the single mother of three children, turned to drugs. Nine months later she remarried, bringing into the family a man who, as Marie describes, “was the kind of guy ready to take advantage of a 21-year-old woman with three young children.”

A child predator.

“For eight years I was in that environment,” says Marie. “Weekly my brothers and I were sexually, physically, verbally and mentally abused. My mother was numb to the world. I remember a lot of pills and pipes around. From the time she was in her early 20’s she had no teeth, I remember that. I also remember I somehow knew this wasn’t right.”

What Marie didn’t know was how to break away. “It was wrong, I knew I had to stand up, it wasn’t OK. But I wasn’t strong enough emotionally because I was being manipulated to where I was confused. My mom would trick me and do things like have a game night and then tell me, ‘look how happy we are.’ I had always been pretty vocal and told my story, but then I would recant, because I would be convinced I was betraying my family. It’s tough when you are nine-years-old and your mother is telling you that you don’t really love us.”

The family, living in Cincinnati, was always on the move. “They were masters of the system,” says Marie. “They worked out a section-eight scam, food stamps, social security disability. When I was seven I got my first library card, but I can never get another one in the state of Ohio, because my mother used mine to order nursing books, so she could learn and then fabricate medical issues for my brother and for her, to keep the disability checks coming. I was in 12 different schools by the time I was a freshman. We went back and forth so the child protective services couldn’t find us. I served two stints in foster care.”

There seemed to be no end. Until one day the law finally intervened and police forcibly removed her mother’s husband from the home. Now it was up to Marie, age 12, to testify against the man who had stolen her childhood and that of her brothers, as her mother sat on the other side of the courtroom, by his side. A watershed moment in Marie’s life, but one that would eventually bring her into the light.

The testimony worked. Her mother’s husband was found guilty and went to jail for 12 years. Marie says she’s sure he’s still out there somewhere, on a sexual predator registry. She knows her mom is still alive. But Marie says her mother has never met her husband of 15-years, or her two boys. Her brothers broke away as well Marie says, “one is doing OK, the other not so much.”

Marie was taken in by her aunt, already a single mom with three children of her own. “She took me in because she knew what I had been through,” says Marie. Her new family was still poor and suffering in that tough economic environment, but life is all about your experiences and your perception. The silver lining of it all was easy for Marie to comprehend, “At least I wasn’t being molested,” she says.

Each and every step away from the darkness, no matter how small, brings you closer to the light. Marie says from as far back as she can remember she knew she had more to offer and could do better than where she was. “I can be more,” says Marie. “I exude life now because the sh**tty part of my life is over.”

Though she dropped out of high school, Marie eventually earned her GED and at age 20, enlisted in the Army working as a human resources specialist. There she met Michael, the man who would become her husband.

Army training took the two to Fort Hood, Texas and they married in the spring of 2002. In 2003, they welcomed their first son into the world, but Mike was soon deployed to Iraq for nearly two years, leaving Marie to raise her son alone.

Mike returned home safely from Iraq and in 2005 the young family was eventually transitioned to Fort Meade, Maryland. It was simply another step on the road to recovery for Marie. “I got my first real office job, I felt so legit,” remembers Marie. “I was making $25,000-a-year, and had a 401-k, in my mind I was on my way to being a millionaire. A few more government positions led Marie to becoming a program manager for a weapons defense contractor. In 2011, just two days before Thanksgiving, Marie was laid off by the government. But that one moment, turned her life on. “I cried the day I was laid off, but then I realized I had asked for this all along.”

At the same time, Marie was immersing herself in the practice of yoga. She was just a few months into her yoga teacher training when she was told she no longer had a job. But Marie remembers what she had said just a week before, when her yoga instructor asked the class to do a deep breathing exercise. “She asked us to breathe in and let it go, and while doing so, get rid of something that isn’t serving you. I said I want to get rid of my job, I want to let go of it. Seven days later I was laid off. I believe in the universe and in destiny. It may not always come in the package you want, but if you listen you will get it from the universe.”

Marie picked up a part-time government job contract job, with the ability to work from home. Three months later she passed her certification and was now teaching yoga.

Game-changer.

In boxing when you hit the mat, it could be just about over. The fight you’ve been waging may be nearing its end, you are about to get beat, your journey is ending. The countdown begins.

In most of life the meaning of being down on the mat means you are just that – down. Maybe down on your luck, maybe down in your mind, maybe down for the count. But what about when your mat means a new beginning, a source of energy, a place of peace, a way to find yourself again?

“Yoga was life changing,” says Marie. “Because it’s all about accepting your path and being OK with things the way they are. There’s a spiritual side to yoga, it’s like going to church when I step on my mat. For me as a person I’m connected to the universe on my mat, more so than anywhere else. I worked out a lot of crap on my mat. Yoga offers a safe space, my mat always listens. I laugh it out, cry it out, it never fails me.”

While helping others change their bodies and their minds through yoga, a few years ago Marie joined Younique, a cosmetic company with a mission is to uplift, empower and validate women around the world through products that encourage both inner and outer beauty. Younique is one of the first direct sales companies to market and sell almost exclusively through the use of social media.

For Marie, between yoga and Younique, it’s a perfect fit. Just over a year ago she got the opportunity to speak at a Younique retreat, where in front of 300 women, she shared her story for the very first time. “I was floored by how many women came up to me after,” says Marie. “They said to me, ‘I couldn’t speak out before, but because you did, now I can.'”

Ultimately this is Marie’s purpose by sharing her story here, if even one person’s life is changed, it’s worth it.

Married now and the mother of two boys, she feels she’s in a good place. “I feel that it’s important for people to know you are not stuck in the life you’ve been handed, or limited by the life you have already lived. Every time you wake up it’s a fresh day. But take some accountability and ownership of your day. From the time you wake up, the day is yours, own it. Looking at the past is not serving you.”

“I’m not my past. My life is exactly the way it is because this is the way I willed it to be. It wasn’t luck that every job I got paid a little bit more. It was not luck that I did yoga training, not just good fortune I found Younique. It was choices, I took control of my life. Our story is exactly the way it is supposed to be and we also have the power to change it. My past is my parallel life and my current life is exactly the way I want it to be. Once you have the power to come away from it, it is a choice to go back and I’m not choosing that.”

With all transparency I found yoga myself. At the beginning of this year I started taking Marie’s Saturday Vinyasa Class at YogaWorks. Without even knowing the story behind her story, I was moved by the way she handled her yoga practice for our group, inspired by her giving, soulful spirit as she taught, as well as the stories she would share at the outset of every class. I had a feeling there was more to Marie.

I have learned many of the yoga moves on the mat. But one pose in particular, as Marie teaches us, is the one you can go to at any time during your practice, a place to rest. It’s way down low on your knees, resting on the top of your feet, head down, eyes closed, arms stretched out in front of you, a place of serenity and acceptance. It’s a posture I now know Marie has visited many, many times, because she refers to it as that “safe” place. A place she can be at peace.

They call that posture, Child’s Pose.

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://ww w.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

Join the Tribe: Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Inspiring Company Stories: (http://www.ushacareers.com/category/inspirational-stories/)

For more info on using Mark to share your story, markbrodinsky@gmail.com/443-865-2795

The Sunday Series (149), with Mark Brodinsky

May 14, 2017 By markbrodinsky Leave a Comment

Want to read a really great story? You need look no further than from the place where your story began.

The first page begins the same for every single person on the planet. For there is no other way to arrive on this earth, then from the gift of life given by one single person, your Mother.

For that simple reason alone, EVERYONE has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

The Sunday Series (149): Mamma’s Boy

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” – Abraham Lincoln

The odds are calculated at 67-million-to-one. Those are the odds of hitting two hole-in-ones in the same round on a golf course. But Travis Yoder did it. April 11th 2010, a day Travis will never forget during a golf tournament near Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The same course that hosts PGA tour events. Even across the border, it still counts.

Yet Travis is no stranger to beating the odds, he learned from the best…his mom.

“If you ask me who was my biggest inspiration in life, it’s easy, it’s my mom,” says Travis. “She taught me my work ethic, she taught me strength and sacrifice, she taught me love.” An only child, Travis’ parents divorced when he was only ten. “It’s all good, I love them both,” says Travis. “I’m not a product of that divorce. Besides the fact that my dad wasn’t always there because I lived with my mom, my mom was always there. Always. I basically grew up on a baseball diamond. My mom sacrificed a lot to make sure I made every practice, every game. The whole time, as a single mom, she worked her career as well.”

“My mom started on the bottom floor of the property appraiser’s office in Tampa, Florida, where I grew up. She started off carrying typewriters to the office and by the time she retired, she was director, with a big, beautiful office on the 15th floor. 40-plus years of hard work. So many people give up nowadays, you talk to them and they are on their 15th job, but my mom never threw in the towel. She earned promotion after promotion and worked her way up. She never gave up. She was a role model there. More people should go into their work with the same intensity and drive. But the majority don’t do that. The hardest job was for my mom was to raise me and work at the same time. My baseball practices and games were endless. But she taught me – don’t let any excuse get in the way of where you want to be.”

Lesson learned. For Travis life has been about sacrifices and movement to make things work. Lots of movement. “Two steps back to be five-steps forward,” is what Travis lives and now teaches. His mom taught him the power and progress which comes from hard work. Maybe that’s the reason Travis and his wife lived in 5 different states over a 12-year-period, as Travis built, recruited and trained insurance agents before finally settling down in Irving, Texas.

Fortunately for Travis, he married Michelle, someone as strong as the woman who raised him. Michelle was no stranger to travel, being a military brat, the daughter of an Army drill sergeant, she had spent a good portion of her life in Germany, then Hawaii. She also knew the power of sacrifice, her dad having served in Vietnam and then her memories of seeing him deployed for Desert Storm.

“A ton of moves did put a strain on my marriage at times,” says Travis. “But Michelle has been my biggest supporter, biggest fan, best friend…not everyone can say that. From day one she’s been supportive, been there to let me live my dream. Every time we talked about the next step, the next rung on the ladder in life, she’s been supportive. She was working as a loan processor at a credit union and she eventually left, just quit, to come work with me. I told her I can’t pay you any money, but I think what you can deliver will make us more money in the long run. She became my office manager and was damn good at it.”

Two steps back, five steps forward.

For Travis, two great women in his life already, but one more was to appear. It didn’t come easy. When Travis and Michelle finally settled into Texas, it was time to talk about expanding the family. They tried to make it happen for three years with no success, eventually each of them went to get tested. “I finally went to get checked out,” says Travis. “The doc says ‘your swimmers are like Michael Phelps, you’re just fine.’ I’m feeling pretty good about myself, but then it starts to set in that something might be wrong with Michelle. But she goes to get tested too and the doc tells her she’s perfect. He says you are overthinking this, just do it, keep trying.”

For Travis there was no giving up, after all, he’s a life-long fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in fact one of their biggest fans. “From the time I was a little kid my dad had front row tickets on the 5o-yard line. I experienced years of traumatic Bucs games. Ten consecutive years of double-digit losing seasons. You’re only a true Bucs fan if they cut you and you bleed creamsicle orange,” jokes Travis.

Between the Bucs and his Mom, Travis knew you never give up. In 2010, it finally happened. “I know exactly the day we got pregnant,” says Travis. “It was the day I hit those two hole-in-ones on the golf course in Mexico. We celebrated that night, if you know what I mean. Michelle swears she got pregnant a week later, but I’m sticking to my story exactly!”

Whenever it happened, the blessing, their daughter Presley, arrived in December 2010. Travis says some people asked him, you’re the big athlete, where’s the boy? “I told them, dude, the best thing that I ever did was have a girl,” says Travis. “It’s one thing to love your mom, a different kind of love for your wife, but the revelation of the world is when you have a daughter. It’s a different realm. It’s hard to describe to someone until you have a child.”

My name is Presley.
I am beautiful.
I am smart.
I am a good listener.
I am a good golfer.
I am going to have an amazing day.
I am going to have an AMAZING day.
I am going to have an AMAZING DAY!!

For a few years now, this is the ritual for Travis and Presley. Her dad says the line, she repeats it, and together the two stay in positive step and mindset. And just like her dad, Presley is becoming quite the golfer.

It’s the same mindset Travis tries to instill in those he inspires and leads as Executive Vice-President of sales for USHEALTH Advisors. Travis travels frequently, but his family understands the sacrifice. Even on the road he makes sure to have his positive pow-wow with Presley, saying their lines and pumping each other up. Travis also knows he gets to spend time with his other family, the leaders and field force of the company. “It’s pretty impressive to see people change their lives,” says Travis. “There are no guarantees, but every day I see people go out and make the sacrifice. The growth model is unbelievable.”

Travis also credits Troy McQuagge, the CEO, for making the last seven years of his life so remarkable, as boss and friend. “The dude is definitely my mentor,” says Travis. “Not everyone gets to work with a boss who is so giving and selfless. His heart is enormous. But he also knows how to push my buttons and drive me. I’m thankful for his mission of HOPE.”

In fact, a few years ago, Travis was at a meeting at Troy’s home when Travis’s phone rang several times. It was his mom calling from Florida. She had some news, her husband, his step-dad, had suffered a heart attack. It wasn’t even a second thought, even though hundreds of miles away, Travis knew he needed to get to the airport, get on a plane and get to his mother. No time to pack, no bags, just a phone call to his wife and he hopped on the first flight he could find. Travis had to get home immediately. He had to be the there for his mom, no tears for him, not just yet.

“My mom was crying hard, I was her rock,” says Travis. “I didn’t cry, even though I had known John for most of my life. I had to be strong. Even writing the eulogy I didn’t cry. It wasn’t until the day of the funeral. My entire family is there and in walks Troy, Randi Stokes, Brian Clark and Dean Whaley. They had all made the trip from Texas. That’s when I broke down. My co-workers, my friends, had made the sacrifice to travel to be there. That was the day I realized when actions speak so loud you can’t hear even drown out what someone is saying.

It’s all about action. Travis says, “I try to be the best dad on the planet, the best husband on the planet, the best co-worker on the planet, the best friend. I’m nowhere near to my goal, but at least I make the attempt. I want to get better every day. I don’t want people to be at my funeral and not know what to say. I just want people to realize you don’t know when your last day is, so you gotta live every day to the fullest. I feel like my story is still just starting. I have a grandmother who just passed away at age 105. I’ve got a long way to go.”

And then there’s mom, who has taught Travis nearly every great lesson of his life. “I have an unbelievably remarkable mother,” says Travis. “I look back on my life and I know I’ve got the best mom on the planet. I have no shame in saying. I’m a mamma’s boy.”