In a heartfelt conversation that embodies The Alliance’s spirit of resilience, freedom, and opportunity, Marvin Osuna shares his remarkable journey with Andy Albright, CEO of National Agents Alliance. From his humble beginnings in Guatemala to his pursuit of the American dream, Marvin's story is one of courage, determination, and a relentless pursuit of financial freedom.
On this episode of the MOVE Podcast, we dive deep into Jake and VeRae Joseph's incredible journey. Driven by dreams of financial independence, they juggled part-time jobs until a pivotal introduction to the Alliance by a family friend, Jerra Gonzales, catalyzed their professional growth. Despite grappling with self-doubt, their unwavering determination, coupled with a supportive team, led them to industry leadership. As they aim for higher echelons within the Alliance, Jake and VeRae underscore the value of patience and perseverance. Their story stands as an inspiration, highlighting the transformative potential of belief, resilience, and commitment.
On this episode of MOVE, Andy Albright talks about the importance of your attitude and how you let other people influence your thoughts and behaviors.
Listen as Andy tackles this big subject for more than 30 minutes in an effort to help you "get your mind right" when it comes to your attitude.
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On this episode of MOVE, Andy serves up a sermon from Marcus Richardson, of Aurora, Colorado, who preached on Sunday morning at The Alliance’s “Breakthrough” event in Burlington, N.C.
Have you ever thought about life in terms of relationships vs. religion?
What if we misunderstood God? What if when he showed up we didn’t understand what needed to happen?
What if it was really about relationships? What if that was God’s plan for us?
Genesis Chapter 1:26 NKJ version
The enemy wants you to question what God actually said to you. Man was made in His image.
You are like God just by showing up. You have to be very careful about what voices you allow in your head. He knows what is in our heart. It all started with Adam and Eve. After eating that forbidden fruit, Adam was suddenly embarrassed that he was naked.
God asked how he knew he was naked? It was the beginning of how man can often fall prey to outside noise that isn’t what God wants for you. God wants what is best for us, even when we might not understand it.
God’s original plan was for man to dominate the Earth.
You have to have faith that your path is the one He intended for you.
Settle in and listen as Marcus shares some select passages from the Bible about this deep subject.
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How many true friends can you say that you have had for more than 30 years? You might have a couple, but the number is probably very low.
For Adam and Beth Katz, the list begins and ends with two people: Andy and Jane Albright.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1991, Beth and Adam accepted elementary teaching positions in Harnett County in North Carolina as part of their Teaching Fellow Scholarship requirement. Each new teacher was assigned a mentor. It just so happened that Adam Katz and Jane Albright were assigned to the same mentor.
Eventually, that mentor started a “side hustle” with Andy Albright in Amway. Andy asked the mentor for a list of names and Adam and Beth Katz were on the list of people to contact.
30 years later, it’s hard to imagine not seeing the Katzes and Albrights not “doing life” together.
“We realized early that our salaries were not going to get us where we wanted to be,” Adam said. “I was very open to ideas of how to make money outside of teaching.”
Andy, then 27, visited with Beth and Adam, who was 22, at their modest townhome, which led to attending an opportunity meeting. They liked Andy and the rest is history … 30 years later!
A lot of “life” has happened during the last three decades. The two couples have been there for the good, the bad and everything in between. The birth of children, the loss of loved ones, the highs and the lows … they’ve experienced it all together.
From 1992-99 the Katzes and the Albrights were working outside of their “9-to-5” jobs building their Amway businesses. If they weren’t teaching, Adam and Beth were working to bring in more income. When Albright had an idea, they were “all in” and tried a number of different money-making ideas.
In 1999, Adam Katz got his insurance license. The reason was to actually make more money that he would be able to invest into his Amway business. Slowly, it became clear that it was time to shift his entire focus into building an insurance agency.
“I knew Andy was working on something and it was probably going to be insurance,” Adam Katz said.
The Katzes said it didn’t matter what direction Andy and Jane went professionally. They had decided to partner in any endeavor with them and “do life together.”
“I just wanted to find somebody to do life and business with,” Adam Katz said. “I always had the dream of having my own business. We were lucky that we ended up with them, and it all started because we liked them and built a relationship with them long before we made any money working with them.”
Pretty quickly the Katzes were able to replace a teaching salary with a multiple six-figure income with The Alliance. That number rose to $1 million annually and the Katzes have enjoyed the ride beside their long-time friends.
They’ve traveled the world with the Albrights in places they never imagined they would see in person. Another constant during their travel is ice cream. It’s a tradition that started on a cruise in Germany. Every trip they are on together, no matter the location, Adam journeys out to find ice cream for his wife and Jane, who loves coffee-flavored ice cream.
“I started a tradition that continues all over the world anywhere we go,” Adam said.
Adam and Beth have went from living in a small townhome to living on the coast in Wilmington, N.C. in their dream home where they raised their three children – Sarah (married and expecting a baby this year), Emily (an agent with The Alliance) and Andrew (a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill).
“We’ve always believed in Adam and Beth from the beginning,” Andy Albright said of his long-time friends. “There’s no couple we want to be successful more than Adam and Beth. They have been by our side when things have been very good, but they’ve also been there when things were not so good. Their loyalty is something we honor and cherish greatly. It’s been a blast hanging out with them all over the world.”
Good or bad, the Katzes said they always had tremendous support from the Albrights.
“They’ve never given up on us even when we’ve given up on ourselves,” Adam Katz said. “They believed in us more than we believed in ourselves. To have somebody in your life that will speak that kind of life into you is just an incredible thing.”
Beth Katz said repaying Andy and Jane for all their help and guidance during the last 30 years is impossible. However, Beth said helping others is their way of showing the Albrights gratitude.
“Adam and I need to be to others what Andy and Jane were to us,” Beth Katz said. “That’s the way we can give back to them for what they’ve done for us.”
The book of Ruth in the Bible talks about making the Covenant Commitment. In a literal sense, a covenant means a binding agreement, a legal contract. It is a seal between two or more parties.
Ruth 1:16-17 reads:
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”
Adam and Beth believe that sums up their relationship with the Albrights. It’s a special bond they don’t believe will ever be broken.
“We didn’t worry about our differences were, we found the commonalities that we could build on,” Adam Katz, 53, said. “It’s been so beautiful to watch come together over 30 years. The next 30 years is going to be more of the same.”
“The idea of us being able to live like we live the last 20 years is crazy,” Adam Katz said. “We decided to be beside them. We have 30 years of great stories.”
Beth added that there is no question in her mind that the relationship happened because it was meant to be.
“We are where we’re supposed to be, we are with the people we are supposed to be and we are just looking forward to what the future holds,” Beth Katz said. “We love doing life with Andy and Jane.”
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On this episode of MOVE, your host Andy Albright brings you his third book "Inside The Circle," so that you can listen to it anywhere you are in the world!
Andy knows the power of controlling the things you actually have control over. He also knows you shouldn't waste time on things you have no power to control. We hope you enjoy this podcast and will learn from what Andy has to share.
If you like what you hear, please share it with others!
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On this episode of Andy Albright's MOVE, you'll learn about the power of owning an annuity product and how it can help set you up for retirement.
Ulpian, who is considered by many to be The Father of the Life Table, or the actuarial table, was standing in the palace of the Emperor as a mob became louder and louder and more unruly. This happened often in ancient Rome. The underclass knew how to stick together to get better treatment from the upper class. Suddenly, the Praetorian Guard, the Secret Service of Ancient Rome, turned on Ulpian and he was assassinated in the chaos. The year was 228.
His work is still here, almost 1,800 years later. Annuities of all kinds depend on the life table, or actuarial that Ulpian is believed to have first conceived. It is ironic that a soldier killed him because some of the first annuities, based on life expectancy, were set up to pay the soldiers of the Roman Empire.
The word “annua” is Latin and refers to annual stipend. Ulpian conceived an idea of measuring life expectancy with his life tables.
The annuity is not welfare. “To each his own” is a basis for self-reliance and annuities through the century have a culture of responsibility to yourself. The idea that pools of money would be used to pay for soldiers, and other “workers” in Rome is certainly not welfare because you were expected to pay in to the pool to get some guarantee of income.
Here is the other bedrock that comes from the Romans.
The jobs in Rome included farmers, doctors, engineers, architects, teachers, shopkeepers, craftsmen, soldiers, sailors, fisherman, writers, poets, musicians, statesmen, bankers, traders, merchants, accountants, government officials, smiths, jewelers, construction workers, temple workers, entertainers, and others.
Doesn’t that sound a little bit like today’s multi-level workforce. The annuity, you see, was created for a broad class of people and occupations.
Scholars believe the Romans had lifetime income strategies that were the basis of the Single Premium Immediate Annuity structure used today
The ideals of annuities have lasted for centuries. It is a culture of looking out for the long haul and having some guarantee of return. This culture has withstood world wars, famines, disease, governments being overthrown, and all manner of human calamity.
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On this episode of Andy Albright's MOVE, you'll learn all about why it's better to "Save Smarter, Not Harder ... a guide to all things Index Universal Life insurance.
What good is wealth accumulation without wealth preservation?
So understand this. Wealth preservation is not simply putting your money in something safe, like an annuity, it is preserving the wealth from unnecessary taxes. Most of us want to contribute to the common good by paying taxes—schools, fire department, police, roads—and we want to stay within the boundaries of the law, but ignorance of tax liability can erode our wealth.
We invest in the wrong tax-advantage financial vehicles. We are not aware of tax-efficiencies. Our tax strategy does not work with our income distribution plan later in life. You don’t know it, but you have laid landmines all around your wealth accumulation plan and one of these days you are going to stumble over that land mine.
This book is going to help you with wealth accumulation and how to preserve that wealth in retirement by setting up tax strategies … now.
The book is also going to help you with planning. If you are reading this book and you are in your early 30s, perfect. Please don’t be dazzled by the booms of the stock market and the 20 percent wins on stocks. It doesn’t last. Invest in the market, sure, but when you diversify think about the IUL and lifetime achievement of your wealth.
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On this episode of MOVE, Andy Albright shares his second book "Millionaire Maker Manual" to lay out how you can grow your business with The Alliance.
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On this episode of MOVE, Andy Albright shares his first book "The 8 Steps To Success" in an effort to reach as many people as possible through this podcast.
Do you know the 8 Steps?
Personal Use
Work
Listen
Read
Attend All Meetings
Be Teachable
Be Accountable
Communicate with a Positive Mental Attitude
These simple steps are Andy's blueprint to finding your own success through taking action in these areas.
We hope you enjoy haering from Andy on this podcast. Let us know what you think!
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On this edition of MOVE, Andy Albright is joined by Chris Rice, president of Kaulig Racing, to talk about leadership, building winning teams and, of all things, pro wrestling.
Albright says he knows nothing about NASCAR racing, and Rice says he knows nothing about insurance.
However, both men know about leadership and winning.
Settle in and enjoy this conversation between two leaders in their respective industries.
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Find out that applies to Noelle Lewantowicz on this special edition of MOVE.
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On this episode of MOVE, Andy Albright interviewes Megan Wood, The Alliance's top producer in 2021, to talk about how she is successful with helping clients consistently.
Tune in to learn some of her strategies to help protect her clients.
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Find out what life is like for these band members and learn why they love what they do.
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On this episode of MOVE, Andy Albright delivers an interview he did with Marc Accetta, who made his debut with The Alliance during National Convention in Burlington, N.C. in late January of 2022.
Accetta is partnering with The Alliance to help make its events even more successful than ever before. His coaching and teaching has helped thousands of sales people in various markets.
Settle in to hear this entertaining chat between gurus of marketing and event presentation. The two will sahre their thoughts on the role live events play in a company and share how marketing plays a huge role too.
You'll learn more about Andy and Marc held initial meetings before deciding their was great synergy and that putting their heads together could set off an explosion of growth for The Alliance in 2022.
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You’ll also find out why they are focused on helping the rest of The Alliance continue growing … let's start the show!
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It’s amazing how minor one day can be to the masses, but mean so much to one person.
May 28, 2012 is that date for Paul Roberts and his family. It’s when he asked God to make him stop.
That’s the day Roberts got sober. He’s been that way for more than nine years, sharing his journey with family, friends and members of The Alliance.
Prior to that day, Roberts drank socially, but that wasn’t when was at his worst. The bad times were when he drank alone. He would drink liquor while sitting in his bathroom alone. One night he woke up in his garage and wasn’t really sure why he was there.
In January of 2012 he finally hit rock bottom. There were multiple trips to the emergency room to get help after rounds of binge drinking. He started hallucinating and had thoughts that he was burden on his wife, Tamara and their daughters – Torre and Randi.
Luckily, that stopped on May 28, 2012.
During the last nine years, Roberts has gone from losing cars and houses to replacing them with significant upgrades. The anxiety he fought for so long to find his next drink has been replaced with celebrating milestones, running various distance races and helping agents become successful.
In early May, Roberts hit another major milestone in his professional career when through his company, Roberts Alliance (aka Roberts Rockstars), helped Roberts become a managing partner with Integrity Marketing Group.
Roberts and Tamara are the first members of The Alliance to partner with Integrity since Andy and Jane Albright joined forces with Dallas-based Integrity, the nation’s largest independent distributor of life and health insurance products.
The Roberts Rockstars group has grown from a small office into a space that allows Roberts to host meetings and events. It’s a special space because of the history he has with it. It was formerly SouthWest Beer and Wine Mart, a place Roberts stopped at almost daily to buy more alcohol.
When Roberts stopped drinking the mart closed less than 90 days later. Roberts was surprised and joked that he had put them out of business when he stopped drinking. The space became New Hope Church for a little while. One day Roberts saw that the building was available because the church was moving. After several visits to see the space, Roberts felt comfortable making this the new home of Roberts Rockstars.
Since the move, Roberts is focused on helping agents grow through coaching and showing them what is possible with a little work.
“I want it bad for them,” Roberts said. “I’ve got mine and now I have to help them get theirs too. Becoming a partner with Integrity has really opened things up for all of us to shoot for partner.”
Roberts is a leader who has shown that with unbreakable determination, one can overcome even the toughest odds. Entering the insurance industry was a leap of faith for Roberts. However, he came equipped with over a decade of experience in professional recruiting. That experience taught him the power that building strong relationships and demonstrating compassion can have on a business.
Today, Roberts Alliance supports a national network of life and health insurance agents who help thousands of American families find the coverage they need. The company placed more than $25 million in annual paid premium during 2020.
"When we started Roberts Alliance, our mission was simply to serve families," Roberts said. "But in life, I've learned you can't do anything alone and we were ready for the next step. Now that we've joined Integrity, we can reach thousands more Americans than we could on our own. Integrity will take many back-office responsibilities off my plate, so I can serve my team more than ever before. I can't wait to see where this journey takes us, and I am so excited that Roberts Alliance is joining forces with Integrity."
No one is prouder of Paul Roberts than The Alliance CEO Andy Albright. He’s been right there with Roberts, who started working with The Alliance in 2005. Albright calls Roberts an example and inspiration for others who are facing their own struggles.
“Paul’s journey is nothing short of inspiring in terms of where he was in 2012 to where he is in 2021,” Albright said. “Through it all, he’s continued helping people grow. He’s one of our greatest success stories, which is why Integrity wanted to make him a partner. Jane and I couldn’t be happier for Paul and Tamara. I predict the Roberts Rockstars are going to grow like crazy moving forward.”
Bryan W. Adams, co-founder and CEO of Integrity, echoed Albright’s comments.
“The story, intensity and passion that Paul brings is truly inspirational and we're honored to partner with him and his team," Adams said. "This partnership will allow Integrity to invest in Paul's business and give him more access to technology and tools, as well as provide crucial resources to help him support his agents. We believe you can never have too many all-star players on one team. Adding Paul to our Integrity family is going to add to our powerhouse squad."
Fueled by industry-leading technology, the Integrity platform offers a vast toolkit of resources to help Roberts Alliance achieve monumental growth. Partners have access to proprietary quoting and enrollment technology, product development and a world-class advertising and marketing firm. Roberts will continue to run his business while taking advantage of Integrity's centralized business functions, such as accounting, human resources, IT and legal. He will also collaborate with the country's leading partners that have already joined Integrity's network. Roberts Alliance will also have access to the leading skill sets of Integrity Partners.
“Our vision has always centered around family, community and team," Roberts said. "With the Employee Ownership Plan (for our staff), our incredibly loyal employees can now share in a piece of Integrity. They are being given a place of honor within our corporate family. I couldn't be more thrilled about our next chapter of growth with Integrity. This partnership opportunity provides us endless possibilities."
The couple chatted with Mac Heffner to talk about how they joined The Alliance, and took advantage of the opportunity.
The Crauses both had impressive military careers in the Army, where they couldn’t always tell people what they had done.
Now, they can tell the world and invite them to join The Alliance too.
Jake remembers the first time he saw Belle was right after finishing basic training in the Army in Huntsville, Ala.
Jake, who served for 22 years before retiring in September of 2018, was in a break room when Belle walked in the room.
“I was struck by her immediately,” Jake said of seeing his future wife. “She was pretty, she had a great smile, and she doesn’t remember meeting me but that was how we met.”
If Belle had followed the path of most people in the small town where she grew up in southeastern Kentucky, she would never have met Jake.
Belle was the first in her family to graduate from high school. Her family’s home didn’t have running water until she was a teenager. Most women in her town were married and had children before they turned 20. It was a poor town, where people don’t dream big and most never leave. Belle wanted more.
She read about different places in the world. An army recruiter came to her school when she was 13 and told her she had options. That gave her the lifeline she needed to live a different life than the people she grew up around. Belle knew she was going to join the Army.
“I couldn’t fathom staying where I was,” Belle said. “Once you get a taste of that freedom and get a taste that there could be more, you starve for it. You are always after the next level of how you can do more and how you can do better.”
On the other side of the country, Jake grew up south of Seattle, Wash. in a town called Kent. As a young boy, Jake went to a state fair and saw an airplane show. He knew the sky was where he wanted to be when he grew up. While Jake had opportunities, he didn’t have enough money to attend college.
Jake’s path was the Army. It was also his ticket to become a pilot.
After meeting at basic training, the couple dated for about six months. They were married on a beach in Florida as they were finishing up Explosive Ordinance Disposal training. Jake deployed a week later. This was basically the routine during the next 22 years.
Belle served for eight years in the Army but was badly injured during an explosion in June of 1996. The blast at the Khobar Towers in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia killed 19 people and threw Belle across the room, injuring her back.
“There’s days where she is down because of her back. She takes away my excuses and a lot of other people’s excuses by going out and still doing that,” Jake said. “Her military service was very significant, and I want everybody to know that.”
As Jake continued deploying for months at a time, Belle raised the couple’s two children – Heidi and Jacob. Eventually, Jake joined a Special Operations Aviation Regiment called the Night Stalkers. He flew in more than 15 combat deployments, some of which movies have been made about.
As Jake clearly had an identity with the military, Belle was losing her role as stay-at-home mom. Her kids were adults, and she need to find a new purpose.
“I was looking for something more when the opportunity of The Alliance came around,” Belle said. “The kids had gotten older, and I was getting into a new phase of life where it wasn’t so centered around raising the children and the home front as much. That’s when this opportunity came along.”
In 2016, Jake was still in the military, but kept seeing fellow Night Stalker Brandon Bules talking to people on the phone or listening to conference calls. Jake finally asked Bules what he was doing. Jake wanted no part of sales or insurance, but he thought Belle would be great at it.
Jake was right, and he eventually warmed up to the idea of working with The Alliance too. Jake said the culture attracted him, which was something he loved about the Army.
“I don’t know where I got this negative perception about sales and insurance,” Jake said. “I knew Brandon was up to something. He’s always been business-minded, and I could just tell he was working on something. Now, looking back, I know he was listening to calls like The Wednesday Call. I finally asked him about it, and I initially rejected it. But, I knew Belle could do it. I pictured her being able to pick it up and run with it.”
Belle got her license in June of 2016. Jake was deployed at the time, but she was able to run business one day each week on Saturday. She did that for six months, and soon realized she could sell life insurance. She also found a new family, and she said fell in love with the people at The Alliance.
“Everything I had done for the last 10 years, the kids were outgrowing it,” Belle said. “I needed something else to identify with. I was grateful I had been a stay-at-home mom, but children grow up and they don’t need you as much. It was scary. I needed a next step. It was a crossroads I was at when I went to that first meeting in Seattle.”
After initially not wanting any part of The Alliance, Jake changed his tune.
“My negative view quickly changed once I met some of the people because I could see the joy in people’s eyes and see the dreams they had,” Jake said. “It changed quickly. I saw it as something we could do together. We had never really been able to work together toward the same goal and dream. This was something we could do together, and I didn’t’ have to leave for months at a time to do it.”
After working part-time for the first six months, Belle increased the time she spent working and eventually moved to full time.
The turning point for the Crauses came after attending a National Convention at The Alliance’s headquarters in Burlington, N.C. The next week Belle wrote almost $18,000. The fire was lit, and the couple hasn’t slowed down since.
“We got nuggets at that convention that turned into belief,” Belle said. “I saw what people were achieving, and I knew we could do it too. I saw people just like me. They were new to insurance too, and they were doing it with a high level of success.”
In the last three years, Jake Crause was able to retire from the Army and work with The Alliance full time. The Crauses have won trips to Hawaii and Paris. They’ve already won the Alaskan Cruise trip in 2022. While in Paris, the Crauses dined atop the Eiffel Tower with Tim and Nicky Long, another member of the Night Stalkers who also joined The Alliance.
They documented the experience by taking a photo together.
“Travel in The Alliance is way different than traveling in the Army,” Jake said. “They never left gifts on my bed in Iraq and Iran. It was a bit of a shock for us to travel like we do with The Alliance.”
Beyond the trips and travel, the world of possibilities has opened for the Crauses. Jake says that is thanks to the vision of The Alliance’s President and CEO Andy Albright.
“Andy Albright has expanded our whole thought process about what is possible,” Jake said. “We had very narrow ideas of what life was going to be like for us. We won the lottery when we found The Alliance.”
The Crauses are excited about where they are now but are bullish about their future with The Alliance. They believe the best is yet to come, no matter what your goals and dreams are.
“It is achievable if you just do the right things and put in the work,” Belle said. “When you start going on some of these trips, you start to see what is possible. If you work hard at it, it can be done. The entire country is like our backyard now. We used to have limiting factors, and now we don’t. It’s just a quick airplane ride away.”
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Golub asks Albright about a number of topics, most of which center around being a successful entrepreneur.
When Brandon Beal walks in a room, it’s hard not to notice him.
He’s big and muscular. Really big.
At 6-foot-5 and 285 pounds, the former Northern Illinois tight end stands out -- and above -- most people.
If the Beal name sounds familiar, it should. Bradley Beal, one of Brandon’s brothers, is an NBA All-Star for the Washington Wizards, who grew up idolizing Brandon’s exploits on the hardwood and gridiron in the St. Louis area. Bradley told STLToday.com that it was Brandon, not Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, that was his favorite player growing up.
“My mother and grandmother have both told me about his eyes never left me when I played,” Brandon said. “During a game you don’t notice something like that. Wherever I went, that’s where his eyes went. I had no idea.”
Growing up, sports were never far from the Beal family. Bobby and Besta Beal both played two sports in college. They expected their children to earn athletic scholarships just like they did.
All five boys did just that.
Brandon loved playing basketball and baseball, but in high school it became obvious that his best shot might be via football and the dream of playing professionally in the NFL.
“God gave me an ability to catch anything that was thrown in the same zip code, but it was a love-hate relationship I had with football,” Beal said. “I could have tried to play both sports, but I wanted to go to a big, Division I school. You couldn’t tell me anything back then.”
At Northern Illinois, Beal had a solid career. During a game against Minnesota his junior year, he tore up his left knee. He bounced back and played in 11 games his senior season. He went undrafted, but had a solid Pro Day where he caught the interest of the Cincinnati Bengals. Near the end of his tryout, he suffered an Peroneus Brevis injury that led to more rehab. He played in an Arena Football League for a Chicago team but never realized his NFL dream.
Beal’s next move was to enter the fitness industry as a personal trainer and was also working a sales job in Chicago and Long Island, N.Y.
Brandon was able to live his pro sports dream vicariously through baby brother Bradley (who was 18 at the time) when he was the No. 3 pick by the Wizards in the 2012 NBA draft.
“My parents pulled me to the side and asked if me and my brother Bruce could move to D.C. and help Bradley out because he had never been out in the real world on his own,” Brandon said. “I told them I could do that, so that’s what we did.”
Once Bradley was settled and doing his NBA thing, Brandon made his way to Menifee, Calif. with his girlfriend, Ashley in 2016.
Did we mention Ashley played basketball for the University of Oregon Ducks and professionally in Australia? The two athletes were married on Sept. 16, 2018.
“We had taken a vacation to Hermosa Beach and loved it,” Brandon said. “I told Ashley that week that we were going to eventually move out there. I think we did about six months later.”
The next transition came when Brandon was approached about selling insurance with a group from the West Coast, who found him on Instagram. Brandon was still working in the personal trainer field, but was certainly open to new opportunities. He got started in December of 2016 and by July of 2017 says he had made exactly … nothing.
Not a hundred dollars, not $20, not even a penny.
Eventually, Brandon Beal crossed paths with Ed Soto, which led to meeting Stephen Davies and eventually Andy Albright. Soto was relentless in recruiting Beal, who finally said he would give it a shot. Albright, Davies and Soto made a plan to get Beal to The Alliance corporate office in Burlington, N.C. Beal attended The Wednesday Call and met Albright for the first time.
“I remember this guy being so loud and just so funny, but there was a realness to him you know,” Beal said of Albright. “A lot of people can talk their way out of a lot of stuff, but it’s hard to do that when you are talking to thousands of people. I see all these people following him for years, so I fell in love with him right there. I might have talked to him for two or three minutes, and I asked him if I could do this. He said anybody could do it, so I told him I’m ready.”
One of the main things that drew Beal to The Alliance was seeing how top leaders and producers were willing to help other agents, even when there was no financial gain in it for them.
“A lot of places are very transactional, and I didn’t like that,” Beal said. “What I saw with The Alliance was people like Davies, Albright, Paul Roberts and Diane Lampe helping people. I saw people calling me back and texting me back when I was a nobody here. I’m still a nobody, but I loved seeing how the team was willing to help coach other people.”
Davies, of Asheville, N.C., remembers thinking that Beal had the potential to be great.
“Brandon has brought his drive, work ethic, and desire to win from the football field into the business,” Davies said. “He also has that same love of the team and is a constant encourager to his teammates. Hollie and I love Brandon and Ashley and are excited to help wherever we can and watch their story unfold.”
As Beal has continued to work hard, he’s found success with The Alliance. In September of 2019, the Beals hit Agency Manger, then hit District Manager in October.
But, Beal doesn’t want anybody to think he has arrived yet.
“I’m all about winning and I’m about being the best that I can be,” Beal said. “My goal is to be there best there ever was. Why shoot for anything lower? That’s just ridiculous to me. When you play a sport, your objective is to win and then be the best at it.”
There’s one more piece of the puzzle that drives Beal, now 35, to think about today and move with urgency. Brandon was in Houston, Texas for an NBA all-star game in Feb. of 2013 with his brother, Bruce and some other friends. He was having trouble catching his breath and felt like his heartrate was elevated.
“My heart was racing, my face was like blueish purple,” Beal said. “I could not breathe. I could not catch my breath. I felt like I was having a heart attack.”
Beal was 27 at the time. When he got back to Washington, D.C., he met with the Wizards’ team doctors. He went to major hospitals at Duke University, Georgetown, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins, etc.
Finally, he got the diagnosis: cardiomyopathy. He was told he had the heart function of a 60-year-old man. That’s tough news to swallow when you are in great shape, don’t smoke or do drugs and only drink alcohol on special occasions.
Beal also lost two friends to heart attacks that were both around the age of 30. Neither had life insurance. Doctors have told Beal his heart could give out on any given day … they just don’t know.
It’s all the motivation he needs to wake up daily and make the most of the time he’s been given.
“I have most crazy amount of urgency you’ve ever seen,” Beal said. “That’s why I’m recruiting like crazy, that’s why I’m trying to put big premium up on the board and enjoy my life because I don’t know how long I’m going to be here.
“God doesn’t promise time to anybody if you think about it. There’s an old saying, ‘from the first slapping cry, we all start to die.’”
The message is from Megan Wood, who is scheduled to be interviewed for this article at 8 a.m. She’s asking if the interview can be pushed back to 9 a.m.
Why the need to push it back?
Her clients always come first, and she’s had a last-minute appointment added to her schedule for the day.
There’s two things in this world that Megan Wood is passionate about. Her son, Elijah, who is 5, and her clients.
When she was originally asked to do the interview at 9:30 a.m., Wood said no because that would cut into her dialing time … on a Sunday morning!
To say she is laser focused is an understatement.
Wood has an addictive personality in anything she does. It dates back to when she was diagnosed with an extreme eating disorder at 13.
After losing five or 10 pounds, she would find a new way to lose another pound. It was a vicious cycle.
At age 15, Wood’s weight dropped to 60 pounds. Her parents, running out of options to help their daughter, sent her to the Laureate Clinic in Oklahoma, which specializes in eating disorders. Her parents couldn’t afford her three-month stay and had to use their 401(k) accounts to cover the costs.
Wood, who says she was told she would die if things continued going the wrong way, was extremely ashamed by putting her parents in that position.
“I was determined to be the best eating disorder person in the world,” Wood says. “It was never enough. I was never satisfied.”
Most of her life she has switched from one addiction to another. After getting her eating disorder under control, Wood became addicted to pills, partly because she was using oxycontin to offset pain after fighting her eating disorder. She was extremely tired and needed a quick way to get her energy up. Amazingly, she was never arrested.
At 17, she started working at an Applebee’s near Darlington, Indiana. She was a really good waitress and bartender. She was also addicted to talking to people and getting them to order one more of anything on the menu.
Wood worked at Applebee’s for 13 years. She saved most of the $35,000 she made annually at the restaurant. However, she blew through all of it finding the drugs she was hooked on. Sometimes she spent $200 daily on a single pill.
Help came in the form of treatment from a methadone clinic, where she was able to get the help she badly needed. Then, she got pregnant and knew she really had to get clean.
Wood was able to buy a house for her and Elijah, which led to her filling out a mortgage protection lead. She wanted to make sure her son would be taken care of in the event something happened to her. A member of The Alliance sold her coverage and a light bulb went off in her head. She believed she could sell insurance too.
Working a crazy schedule at a restaurant is tough on anybody, but for a single mother it is even harder. She saw The Alliance as a way to transition out of working crazy hours and having more time for her son.
The Alliance became her new addiction.
It gave her an outlet to change her bad addictive behavior into something positive.
“The Alliance saved my life,” Wood says. “I would much rather have this kind of addiction and put money in my pocket,”
Wood started on a part-time basis three years ago, but left Applebee’s in February of 2019 to go “all in” with The Alliance.
“It’s what I’m addicted to and I love it,” Wood says. “That is why I am successful.”
Wood is direct to Mike and Noelle Lewantowicz, who have watched their superstar agent explode from writing an average of $20,000 monthly to breaking the $90,000 mark in a single month in 2020. They attribute her growth to being focused, relatable to all kinds of people and having a work ethic that is second to none.
“She listens very carefully to all of their needs,” Mike Lewantowicz says. “She takes care of the most important need now. And she creates a plan to come back and take care of the next need she has identified. Her work ethic, focus, intensity and relentlessness is off the charts.”
Noelle Lewantowicz said Wood is great at focusing, when most people can’t even decide what they want to do daily.
“She is focused on two things: she’s a mama and she’s a worker,” Noelle Lewantowicz says. “That’s where she spends her time.”
Wood says helping clients makes her happy. She’s able to set her own work schedule now, freeing her up to spend a lot of quality time with her son whenever she wants to. That means trips to places like Disney World, the beach, museums, etc. Whatever her son wants to do, she’s up for it. She admits she has a hard time doing nothing. She doesn’t have a hobby and doesn’t want to pick one up. Offering people life insurance makes her happy.
“If I’m not doing it, I just get depressed and wish that I was,” Wood says. “I love it. I have a lot of fun. It’s a challenge. When I help a family it’s like a high. I leave a home thinking, ‘let’s do that again!’”
Looking back at her growth during the last three years, Wood says fear is what drove her to succeed. She knew bills were coming and she wanted to provide for her son without being worried all the time.
“That pushed me to be successful,” Wood says. “Then, I just became addicted to it.”
The results are impressive.
She’s won four trips to Thailand in 2021, and she’s on track to earn 700,000 points for the year (Wood had 540,000 at the end of October). She leads the country in personal production, which will earn her the choice of a Rolex in January of 2021, because of winning a production contest.
Her short-term goal is to reach Agency Manager, which should happen in December. That means Wood would earn a ring and a Rolex at NatCon.
Did we mention she’s got $160,000 in her bank account?
Wood just keeps coming up with new goals.
“My goal was to stay in the top five and I’ve been at the top for more than half the year,” Wood says. “But it’s the fear that somebody could jump ahead of me that keeps me going and going. I don’t think I’m great, I think I could be better. Knowing that you are not great and knowing you can be better drives me.”
What’s in store for 2021?
Wood wants to earn 1,000,000 points, grow her team, teach others to do exactly what she is doing and then compete against them.
For her, it’s about being humble and hungry at the same time. She wants to do a little bit more every single day.
“That’s always up the goal,” Wood says. “It never stops. It’s just never enough.”
His appearance was made at the request of head coach Kevin Keatts, who wanted Andy to inspire his team as they begin the 2020-21 season.
How did he wind up in life insurance?
A bad back and a brother who was an insurance agent with State Farm led Mark Hutcheson to The Alliance.
Hutcheson grew up in the northern part of Georgia in a middle-class family with 8 siblings (seven boys and two girls). His father was a Baptist pastor and the family didn’t have a television, which meant long hours playing football, basketball and baseball outside.
The family moved to Kansas City his freshman year of high school, but he returned to Greenville, S.C. after high school and attended Bob Jones University.
He worked as a landscaper in college and hurt his back, forcing him to have back surgery at age 21. His next job was doing electrical work that required physical labor and led to a second surgery at age 30.
Hutcheson, who lives in Greenville, S.C., had already decided he couldn’t make a living doing hard labor. Luckily, he found The Alliance in 2011. He was also working part-time as a basketball referee, but didn’t think he would ever be able to provide for a family on the path he was on.
“I was 26 and I was frustrated making a little over $10 dollars an hour as a rookie electrician,” Hutcheson said. “I didn’t see it going anywhere.”
One of Hutcheson’s older brothers introduced him to The Alliance after filling out a lead out of curiosity. An agent met with Hutcheson’s brother and he encouraged Mark to look at joining The Alliance.
Hutcheson, 35, got his license in the fall of 2011, but struggled early on barely being able to pay his bills. He was living scared and each week had to fight just to make ends meet.
“I just wasn't putting in that activity and the work that was required to do this at a high level,” Hutcheson said. “When I realized that it was something I could control and you didn’t have to have this great skill set or this incredible knowledge of all these products things changed. You just have to be willing to go out, work and just do what was being taught.”
Things started clicking for Hutcheson in January of 2012. It wasn’t record numbers, but he made $75,000 in his first full year with The Alliance. With increased activity, Hutcheson enjoyed more and more success over time. Each year since 2012, his income has gone up.
“It’s nothing earth shattering, there’s no magic formula,” Hutcheson said. “I’m just a small-town country boy from North Georgia that just knew there was something better in life out there than what I was doing as an electrician on a fixed income. I just needed the right opportunity and the right direction, which I think The Alliance excels at better than anybody else in showing you how to break free from the rat race of life and showing you how to control your own financial destiny and future.”
Outside of selling insurance, Hutcheson was still refereeing college basketball games. He loved it, but he wanted a family and knew he’d have to hang his whistle up.
Hutcheson met his wife, Shannon in 2016 and got married in May of 2017. He called his last basketball game in 2018, after the arrival of a daughter named Georgia (2). He also has a step daughter Adrianna (12).
The couple will welcome another child in January of 2021, which Hutcheson has jokingly referred to as a “Corona” baby because Shannon got pregnant during the COVID-19 outbreak in March.
Hutcheson has continued to help clients during the pandemic. He’s come a long way from being a broke electrician with a bum back 10 years ago. He’s also thankful to Andy Albright for starting The Alliance in 2002 that offered him a better way to earn income.
“Not a day goes by where I don't think of what life was like nine years ago,” Hutcheson said. “Fortunately, we're blessed with the ability to go out and work to provide a great lifestyle. The key is continuing to be grateful for where you came from, and letting that gratitude drive and propel you to make a difference in others’ lives.”
Hutcheson wants new agents or those who are in a slump now to remember the results come from the activity and effort you put into it. There’s no magic to it. It won’t just happen overnight. Hutcheson said you can’t let fear prevent you from taking action.
“I had those same concerns and those same natural fears and worries when I first started, but what I've learned along the way is you don't know what you don't know,” Hutcheson said. “I think people expect it to be an overnight success or to see these massive changes in a week or so and it doesn't work like that. It just makes me that much more thankful for the vision and the leadership that we have here at The Alliance. You gotta be willing to work. Bring a teachable attitude and good work ethic to the table."
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