How I Blew Up My Life During The Pandemic and Am Now Kicking Ass
In 2020, I sold my business, sold my house, and lost my dog. Now I’m on the beach 😎
There’s a good chance I’ll be knocking off early today and heading to the beach again. It’s just a short drive away and it’s my best place to think…and chill out.
I always feel grateful when I put my toes in the sand. I had to work to get back to balance in my life, and now have clarity of vision of the future.
But there’ve been some challenging days in the last three years.
See, I recently blew up my life and rebranded myself (AGAIN!) — and now I am thriving.
2020 was a turbulent year for me. In addition to the now ridiculous pandemic lockdowns, I went through some major life changes. For most people, these abrupt changes in such a short period of time would cause a lot of stress.
Early in 2020, a lifelong friend — my beloved dog, Rags — passed from old age. He was a 16-year-old cockapoo who was with me and my family almost every day of his life. As usual, I am tearing up just thinking of all the good times we had.
Then a couple of months later, I finally removed my golden handcuffs and sold my multi-million dollar insurance and financial services business that I had built over 30 years.
And finally, I sold my house of 30 years as well — downsizing and moving toward my dream of becoming a minimalist — escaping from my prison of STUFF.
Re-branding experience #3
Now my wife and I live near the beach — and we’re living our best life. We are focused on the well-being of our minds and bodies.
I’ve rebranded myself with more intention of helping people and supporting those on similar journeys as I’ve been on.
I now help professionals reduce stress and avoid burnout. In the past three years, I’ve helped professional athletes, performers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others who struggle with the burden of stress and emotional dysregulation (anger, fear, anxiety, worry, self-doubt).
Dealing with my anxiety on a daily basis, I’ve developed some amazingly effective tools to reduce my fear, worry and panic in so many situations. And now I help others make quick changes with that, too.
This is my third identity — Marty Brand #3, if you will — since becoming an adult. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. Stress and anxiety hold so many people back from feeling happy and rewarded.
Let’s take a look back.
Shooting for the stars with Marty Brand #1
After graduating from Temple University, I was already well-known in the world of radio news and sports. As a young, naive sports reporter, I had already covered the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, and numerous other professional and college sports, and did play-by-play announcing for two NCAA March Madness tournament games.
Over the next nine years, I won two Associated Press news reporting awards, added covering the Super Bowl and announcing more NCAA tourney games to my resume, and worked the AP international broadcast news desk for two Olympics.
After lots of radio journalism success, I was determined to break into TV news and sports (although I have a face made for radio! 😂)
This was my first identity — Marty Brand #1 — and my career was skyrocketing. I was traveling to cover news and sports stories for the AP and climbing up the journalistic ladder with each story that I broke.
But this brand wasn’t meshing with how my life was going overall. My wife and I wanted to start a family and have kids. I needed “time freedom.” Radio news and sports dominated my life — especially on nights and weekends — and although I loved it, it was incongruent with my personal life goals.
Settling down with Marty Brand #2
I walked away from a promising and somewhat dazzling career in broadcast journalism (I had achieved a lot at such a young age — in such a short period of time).
News and sports reporting is in my blood. Not a day goes by when I don’t wonder what’s going on in the AP broadcast center when big news breaks.
But I wasn’t happy traveling every day and being addicted to the dopamine rush of news and sports reporting. It seemed awesome when I was a young buck in college, but my priorities shifted and now that I wanted to start a family. I needed to make a change.
After packing away my microphone and recorder, I switched to the professional “suits and tie world” of insurance and financial planning.
Wow — BORING. Can you imagine going from covering international news and sports to selling insurance? It was quite a shock to my system.
I started to eat better, sleep better and exercise regularly. I was feeling great.
But the best feeling was when my wife got pregnant. And being in sales, I had somewhat more “time freedom” — especially to support my wife and unborn child each day. I was always available for them.
Even though the work I was now doing was extremely mundane, I was helping people and there was huge potential to build a successful profitable business.
Here was my new identity — Marty Brand #2 — a financial consultant and FATHER.
After my kids were born, it was then almost 30 years of school trips, volunteering in the classroom, and coaching multiple sports for both of them. Being a dad and a business owner connected with me deeply.
Having the “time freedom” to spend with my family while my kids were growing up is something I wouldn’t trade for anything. Although, I never stopped missing Marty Brand #1 — and all of the excitement of broadcast journalism — Marty Brand #2 held deeper meaning and significance for me.
And it provided a solid foundation for the great relationships I have today with my wife and adult offspring.
Moving forward
And here we are with the third generation of Marty iteration — Marty Brand #3.
Helping people transform their negative thinking into positive motivation is extremely rewarding. I am a certified stress and trauma coach who helps professionals bring calm to their lives and avoid burnout.
I’ve developed a program called P-E-T-S to help veterinarians avoid compassion fatigue and burnout.
I’ve developed a leadership skills session package called C-A-L-M for directors of childcare centers to bring calm into preschool classrooms.
And I work with inner-city high schools and colleges with a program called “Healing Trauma with Sports” to support young athletes impacted by trauma.
And after helping people today, I’m heading to the beach. Again, I’ll be so grateful when I dig my toes into the sand.
Don’t let your negative thinking hold you back any longer.
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