Brooke Barnett

I have done quite a few trade shows for United First Financial and I have failed miserly at most of them. it is amazing how much you learn from failure. One key principle I try to teach everyone about marketing it to do it right or do not do it at all. This is very true for trade shows.

Booth Size

A small 10′x10′ booth is great if you want to be part of the crowd but if you want to stand out gather a group of people and split the cost of a larger booth.

Electric

Usually very expensive but having power for your booth is a must.

Internet

MUST HAVE! Here you have a few options. You can purchase a wireless internet card from your cell phone carrier for roughly $50 a month. If you are traveling at all to do business this can pay for itself very easily. If you are to purchase on of these air cards I recommend that you get a USB card. It might be a little clunky when using on your laptop but it also allows you to use it on a desktop computer. It is essential you have the ability to run an analysis, show the demo software or sign up and agent at the booth.

Giveaways

You need to create a reason for people #1 to stop at your both and #2 to give you their information. This goes back to doing it right. Factor into the cost of the booth a nice prize of some sort. Maybe a small plasma TV, iPhone or if it is a home show try a few hundred dollar gift certificate to Home Depot.

This is just a few tips but remember your goal is to get their info not for you to give them info. Flyers, business cards and fancy pens end up in the trash on the way out or the next day at home. Do not focus on what you give out but how you captue and follow up.

It is here already again. It seems like just yesterday I was speaking at the Business Plan 2008 convention in Las Vegas, NV. Here we are one year later and I fly out to Vegas tomorrow. The Mastery Business Plan is hosted by Mortgage Success Source, Duncan Group, Mortgage Market Guide and Loan Tool Box. It is a combination of last years two premier mortgage events Todd Duncan Sales Mastery and Business Plan. There will be over 1000 in attendance. I have attached a pic for you to see the size of the event and the incredible branding United First Financial receives at the event. I will keep everyone covered on the happenings at the event both here and on twitter using the hash tag #MBP08.

Mastery Business Plan 2008

At the time of this post my United First Financial website is listed #4 in google for the search term United First Financial. This was accomplished with nothing but hard work and it has paid off 10 fold. Learning marketing and especially internet marketing has lead me to be able to live the lifestyle I live and run my business the way I do. If there are two things I wish I would have been taugh when I was young they are this… 1. Sales rule the world. If you are not selling you are supporting a product someone sold. 2. Marking rules sales. If you have enough people interested in your product you will always be successful.

I hope to see many more of the internet marketing students at the top of google soon.

I had the privlidge of attending and doing two seperate breakout room trainings at the United First Financial Super Regional Training at the Paris in Las Vegas, NV. There were a total of over 700 agents in attendace and many great speakers. I presented on effectivly using the financial analysis and internet marketing and branding. In additional Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup Series, spoke on his thoughts about United First Financial. A few bombshell announcements were made also to include the fact that United First Financial and the Money Merge Account will be featured on the cover of Success at Home Magazine in the month of January, 2009. If you would like to get a first hand look at one of these events it is not to late. We will be in Orlando, FL this weekend and Arlington, VA in a few weeks. Cruise on over to United First FInancial to find out more.

Today, Morgan Stanlely reported they are going to freeze equity line withdrawls. They au have a re the second largest bank next to Bank of America who has already frozen over 150,000 home equity lines of credit. How does this impact United First Financial and the Money Merge Account. In the past this would have great impact and would even leave some of our customers unable to use the program. Now with our feature of an Advanced Savings Line or ASL as long as you have a Checking, Savings and Credit Card with at least a $300 limit it will be seamless. THe Money Merge Account will automatically switch over when you alert it your equity line has been frozen and you will not miss a beat. For more information on this visit United First Financial.

This is just a quick update. Mac Saunders has published and recorded the new corporate presentation for the Money Merge Account Version 4. Many of you who are following this blog waiting to find out when our presentations comes out will be pleased to hear it was recorded yesterday and has been transcribed. As soon as some slides are cleaned up and the transcription is compliant all notes will be added to individual slides and it will be posted on the United First Financial corporate backoffice. The presentation will be labeled checking, savings and credit card. It will also apply to lines of credit that do not meet the minimum required credit line. Thanks for all the support and it should be posted by Monday afternoon.

It was late 2006 and there was a storm of publicity going on about the new CMG Home Ownership Accelerator. Just as there is today, many people were blogging and reporting incorrect information about the program and the core concepts attached to it. My business associate Kim Kline forwarded me an e-mail containing a link to a MSNBC.com question and answer to what is a mortgage accelerator. The question was targeted at the Home Ownership Accelerator and the answer responded with information about a bi-weekly program.

I thought to myself here is my chance to steal a bit of media so I e-mailed the columnist who answered the question. In addition i searched for more of these expert forums. In doing so I can across Dr. Don Taylor of Bankrate.com. Dr. Don writes a column on bankrate discussing and answering everything financial. While I never heard back from the MSNBC columnist, Dr. Don wrote me back in a quick manor. After a few weeks this was published  ‘Mortgage Accelerator’ loans come to U.S. I had no clue what I was in for. For the next few weeks my office could not answer phones fast enough.

But this odd question continued to be asked, “Can I offer this product?” I would politely ask if they have a mortgage license and the conversation would end with a “NO.” After about the 50th call like this I finally had someone ask me if this was the same as the Money Merge Account. I had no clue what they were talking about. So as a good business person I Googled the name and found there was a live presentation that night right in my town of San Diego, CA. I quickly got dressed in a pair of board shorts, t-shirt, sandals and a backwards hat and headed out the door for a recon mission.

That night Mac Saunders, Director of Sales and Don Jorgenson, Co-Founder gave the presentation for local agent Keith Eisberg. Unfortunately for Keith, Mac and Don had to leave and catch a plane back to Utah. Keith was left to answer questions and unfortunately was a fairly new agent with UFirst. To make a long night short I answered many of the questions that night. Upon completion of the event I asked Keith how to get started. He gave me his card and said to call. I was so anxious I called Keith the night and for some reason he said that this business was not right for me.

Well I embarked on a journey to find a sponsor and back to Google I went. The first person I found was on myspace.com and had his number posted. Jarrett Holmes out of North Carolina was the next up. Jarrett answered his phone and instantly was brutally honest with me. He said I am brand new and cannot answer your questions. So Jarrett put me in touch with Richard Schaffer and after a few days and hours of conversations later I was set to fly to Florida to meet Richard, Jarrett and the owners of United First Financial.

The rest is history and today I am proud to be associated with Jarrett, Rich and many other mentors. I might not be 1 of 9 Senior Executive Branch Managers in the company without this chain of events. Today, I do not know where Keith is but I can tell you I think this business is somewhat right for me and I think Jarrett could argue that point also.

But the moral of the story is at the end of the day you have no clue who has the passion and desire to make a difference. I was not then a believer that the Money Merge Account was for everyone, nor am I now I can show you real life results on what is has done for my clients and myself. I do not care what walk of life you come from or what you have or have not achieved, if you are coachable you can learn to help others get out of debt with the Money Merge Account. Donald Trump knew nothing when he was born and he still knows nothing about many things but what he focused on he succeeded at and you can do the same.

United First Financial has created one of the most powerful tool kits for independent business owners. They have appropriately named the system UTracker. The lead advisors and programmers on UTracker are Todd Skousen and Ben Cobb. I have had the labor of love to consult on a few of the items and would like to share a quick summary of features currently offered.

UTracker is a free resource provided to all United First Financial Agents to be able to analyize a prospects custom Money Merge Account scenario.

UTracker Pro is a subscription service which include all features of UTracker and Contact Management, E-Mail, 2 Landing pages, Marketing website, GoToMeeting and demonstrative Money Merge Account.

UTracker Pro Plus is also a subscription service which includes all features of UTracker and UTracker Pro in addition to E-Mail autoresponder drip system, Video Marketing system, personal development and GoToWebinar.

All of these tools are intended for use with United First Financial but can be customized to work with your existing business. To find out more on how to integrate these powerful tools with your existing business and integrate the Money Merge Account Sytstem to increase sales and revenue visit Money Merge Account Agent.

True Cost is the cost of an amount of money spent while your debts outweigh your assets. Let’s break this down. While you are in debt or your debts out weigh your assets you are currently paying interest on everything you purchase or spend money on. This is because every dollar you make that is not going towards the the balance owed you are continuing to finance day after day until those debts are all paid. With the Money Merge Account system you total debts are tracked and each dollar spent is analyzed based on the amount of time you have left until you are debt free. This is like taking every financial calculator for every debt you have and combining them together to figure out the exact cost of each dollar spent. This powerful tool is a standard feature in both the Money Merge Account Pro and the Money Merge Account Express.

True Cost can also be projected on a future purchase giving you the ability to make a smart and educated financial decision on a purchase and see how it will impact you in the long run. The true cost feature give you the ability to see the time value of money for your exact financial situation.

For more information on the Money Merge Account visit United First Financial.

I wanted to write this post for over a year now so here it is. I cannot speak highly enough about the innovation of the founders of United First Financial for what they have achieved so far. But that is only the start of the story. As a business minded person I am always looking to brand something unique but have the ability to expand upon it. This is exactly what the founders of UFirst did. Take a step back and think about the name United First Financial or UFirst. First we have the full name and it is United First. We stand united first. Second we have U First. So U come first. There are many different ways this corporate name can be spun but the versatility fits the mission and objectives of the company perfect.

Next let’s take a look at the name of the product, Money Merge Account. While this program started as a mortgage acceleration program they chose not to call it the Mortgage Pay Off Quicker Program. They named it appropriately the Principal First Account. Yes, you heard me right. The very first name of what we now cherish as the Money Merge Account was the Principal First Account. Now Principal First Account is a pretty darn good name also but unfortunately the word principal is trademarked in the financial services area. Is that crazy or what? You can trademark the work Principal? Maybe I can trademark the word THE.

Anyway after they realized they had to change the name they decided upon the Money Merge Account. The specific nature of this is spot on perfect and yet very vast and universal. As we just merged to the new version 4 of the Money Merge Account program it now can focus on debt for a person who does not have a mortgage and the name still fits perfect. I have wanted to share the forward thinking of those who are behind the scenes making decisions that impact thousands of agents and thousands more clients.