Madden Mischief

Hey Y’all, just returned from four action-packed days in one of America’s liveliest, most sparkling towns, which to me and millions of others is the beloved country music capital, Nashville, TN.

I was there with my beautiful Brazilian wife Rita accompanying her as she worked as liaison to the high-flying Brazillionaires wing of one of the fastest growing, you might even say briskly galloping companies in America, Five Rings Financial.

Rita was busy working her a__ off while I partied along with wherever the crowd drifted after uplifting talks by the motivating man who runs the show, whom I call their Cat 10 commander, Mike Wilk, along with his alive and perky, ever smiling wife, Monica.

Oh yea, they’re among the world’s most successful marketers of premium life insurance in the country, in fact the Five Rings that Mike founded is one of the only firms offering living benefits, which means that the lives of subscribers don’t have to end in order for those protected families to cash in on financial benefits for which they’re insured for life.  

Category 10

Wow, was it an exciting and exhilarating time we had before and after inspiring meetings at the Hilton Downtown capped by visits to some of the most jumping nightclubs on this earth.

One of them was the cavernous four-story bar aptly called Category 10 named after its founder Luke Combs’ first big hit “Hurricane.” That song went multiple times platinum, smashing the charts at No.1.  So, he gave his bar the perfect handle for featuring one of the wildest, widest, most active dance floors in the country, doubling the hurricane max from a measly 5 to a thunderous 10.

It’s similar to what Wilk has done in the insurance industry as founder, president and the healthy hyperactive CEO of one of the America’s leadings financial services firms Five Rings Financial, LLC., headquartered in Littleton, Colorado. 

That’s where Mike and his exemplary team are as far from little as most entrepreneurs ever get whose core purpose in life concentrates on personal financial education.

This is what Five Rings Financial delivers in spades each year for the many thousands of families that he and his teams not only insure but enlighten throughout the country about the many benefits of the life insurance that he and his army of educators promulgate, offering not only the most solid financial security but living benefits! 

Go Eagles!

During the weekend I was there, the spiraling Hilton was teaming with a happily crackling core of Philadelphia Eagles fans.

Oh yea, they had come to see them vanquish the Tennessee Titans. Sorry, President Trump, I won’t say “annihilate.”  The drama would unfold at nearby Nissan Stadium to which I hoofed it one hot sunny Sunday via the walk-over bridge together with a massive crowd from the city where I was born. It’s the brotherly-loving city where I was also educated at Temple and Penn, while working as a city-side newspaper reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer.  Go Eagles! 

They won by two points as dramatically and nail-biting as you can get when quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a 3-yard touchdown pass with only 9 seconds left in the game.  Holy cow!  What a time I had in Nashville.

Another highlight of my short but memorable time in Nashville was having a most beautiful private breakfast at the hotel with acclaimed singer-songwriter, concert pianist, composer, playwright and entrepreneur Rebecca Magnuson, known for her powerful one-woman production, She Sings®: A Soaring Musical.       

This was the first opportunity for me to personally meet up close and personal one of the most versatile talents my PR firm TransMedia Group represents and whom we’re proud to promote. In the many years we’ve been playing a starring role in the publicity biz, there’s no one who deserves fame more than Rebecca.

Her journey to escape physical, mental and financial abuse provide a powerful foundation for her series, SHE SINGS® SURVIVING THE NARCISSIST that dramatically tells the story from her upbringing as the daughter of a conservative, hell-fire preacher to her tumultuous marriage resulting in a turbulent divorce trial in DC Superior Court, where she exposed hidden financial manipulation and systemic failures in our justice system.

Artifacts Close By

That’s right, I can’t leave Nashville without citing the uplifting time Rita and I had touring The Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville.

In this massive, multi-level cultural center over 2.5 million artifacts are safeguarded that celebrate the history, traditions and legendary figures of country music. 

There, I got to see a picture of the deluxe gold-plated Cadillac Elvis Presley drove. Next to it, you’ll also see below the fabulous Rebecca who drives singing to the summit. She’s with her proud publicist, that’s me, after our delightful breakfast together. 

The concluding picture is the climax of our time in Nashville. It shows Rita and me with the joyful throng of Five Rings Financial top performers, all celebrating success on the outdoor patio of where they all truly belong, in the Hall of Fame.   

Thank you, Nashville.  You’re one heck of a great town, or should I say city! But I sure loved the time we spent downtown! From the time he was a news reporter to when he launched one of the country’s leading PR firms, Tom Madden has always been an adventurer looking for and then telling great stories.  Today, his daughter Adrienne Mazzone is president of the PR firm he founded, TransMedia Group.