Adam Torres and Danielle Wood discuss Mega Mix Expo.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Mega Mix Expo coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres and Danielle Wood, Business Development Representative at Certified Federal Credit Union, explore Certified Federal Credit Union and the upcoming Megamix expo.
About Certified Federal Credit Union
Certified Federal Credit Union’s greatest assets are its people, capital, and reputation, with reputation being the most valuable and difficult to restore. Guided by a philosophy rooted in **Integrity, Quality, Member Satisfaction, a Strong Team, and Sound Financial Principles**, the organization is committed to delivering exceptional service and financial solutions.
With a steadfast dedication to its members, Certified Federal upholds the highest standards, ensuring long-term stability, trust, and financial well-being for the communities it serves.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have Danielle Wood on the line, and she’s a business development representative over at Certified Federal Credit Union.
Danielle, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Good morning. All right, so we got a lot to talk about, but first thing first, I want to bring this up. Correct me if I’m off, Danielle. You’re going to be attending, and actually you’re going to have a booth Certified Federal Credit Union’s going to have a booth over at the Megamix Expo.
Am I off on that? No, you’re not. You are absolutely correct. We will be there on March 12th and 13th with the booth set up for fantastic. And is this your 1st time attending or have you been in the past either as an attendee or as an exhibitor? Give me a little bit of story of the background.
So I actually was a part of the San Gabriel Megamixer back in 2022, where we did have a booth set up and we did attend some of the classes there as well. But this will be my first time, like, working with Tony and everybody, but I’m very familiar with Tony’s through the GWC and that’s actually how I met him as well.
Amazing. So lots of things you can do lots of events and organizations you can support. Why come back to the Megamix Expo? What’s so special about it? it’s just a great way to just meet the community and the surrounding communities as well as all the small businesses that are out there. There’s so many businesses and individuals that are there to kind of help one another, help the community continue to grow.
And it’s just, it’s a great way to meet people. And that’s kind of what my team is all about. We love talking with people and seeing how we can help out. How did you originally get started either in banking or with a certified federal credit union in general? Or how’d you get started in the business?
So actually, it was something that I started more with a big business banking kind of situation. So I wasn’t with the credit unions until about 2022, where I joined with prospectors federal credit union. And we actually recently merged with certified kind of making us a more available to our members and bigger and better.
And it was always something that I just really enjoyed being a part of when it came down to helping people. Getting them on the right path of where they need to be. Financial literacy is a huge passion of mine, especially for the young adults and even kids out there. I have all kinds of little programs for that, but I have to always love just the banking industry itself, what it has to offer, how to help people reach all their financial goals and what they want to do.
And so now I have an amazing team that I work with always have, even with prospectors and now it’s just bigger. Talk a little bit about the credit union model in general and how that works. I always, you know, it’s kind of, some people just don’t know. And I want to make sure that we get that out there through credit union versus maybe the traditional bank.
Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, we always like to say that credit unions, especially certified is, it’s just like a bank only better. Whereas with the bigger institutional banks it is run kind of from an up top ladder while credit unions are run by their members themselves. Everyone that has an an account with a credit union does own a share into that credit union.
We have a board that is voted in through our membership. So they are all part of it and they kind of help make those decisions based off of what the membership are needing. We are a not for profit organization. So we work alongside our members and what they need. It’s just very one on one. It’s that family feel a neighborhood feel like it’s very different.
You’re not just a number with a credit union, especially certified. Yeah, and talk maybe a little bit about the products, because a lot of the products, though, can be, even though you’re creating for the members, I mean, the traditional financing, things like that. Oh, absolutely. Talk a little bit about that.
Yes, no, absolutely. Like I said, just like a bank, only better. We do offer all the auto loans, RV loans, motorcycle loans, home loans. We offer equity lines, we offer low fixed rate credit cards, and then of course, becoming a member, you get that savings account, the checking account, we offer money markets, CDs, IRAs, you name it, we offer it, I mean, everything is available.
We even have stuff for the youngins out there. So we have. The minor accounts to help get them learning how to save everything, everything. And one of our favorite products is that credit card that’s low and fixed rate that you can do balance transfers from higher rates. We start as low as 8.
99 and we do not go above 17. 99. That is the highest we’ll go. Yeah, so what do you first off, location, geography, how do people participate as members, like, talk a little bit about that. Yes, no, absolutely. So, when it comes down to credit unions, I’m sure many people are kind of familiar with, like, they’ll hear a lot about, like, Schools First, Navy Federal.
There’s certain areas that you would need to be a part of, meaning either living, working, going to school or even volunteering in certain zip codes or certain type of companies. With Certified and also now Prospectors since we recently merged with them, Certified was really low focused on like the grocery area.
So Vaughn’s, they even took in Vaughn’s Federal Credit Union, Albertson, Stater Brothers. So if you or an immediate family member are part of any of those groceries, Superior even Lazy Acres, AAA now even, you would qualify for membership. And then also because of the merger with Prospectors, zip codes.
We actually cut Cover quite a few zip codes from El Monte up to San Dimas, down in to Brea, into la and even parts of the Inland Empire. We cover a very vast ma majority of this area. And again, it doesn’t mean that you only have to live there. It’s either live, work, worship, volunteer, or even go to school in any one of those zip codes, and you can’t actually locate that on our on our website as well.
Fantastic. And I’ve had many experiences with different credit unions throughout the years and I really enjoy them. Like, I’ve enjoyed it. Whether it was my original credit union when I was, back in college and they had a credit union or even as I. progressed and opened other accounts.
I just, I agree with many of the things you said is that credit unions do have their benefits. Danielle, I know you’re going, you mentioned you’re going to have a booth there for everybody listening head on over to megamixexpo. com. There’s good, there’s grab some tickets, come out there, come network.
I’m going to be there. I’ll be on site doing some live interviews and podcasting and just. Really getting into the community. That’s one of the reasons why I’m going Danielle is I want to get into the community and see what’s going on, go out there, shake some hands, , , meet people and have some fun as well.
It’s going to be at the Santa Ana park over in Arcadia, California. And it’s a big, beautiful racetrack that horse racetrack and overlooks the mountains. And I mean, it’s just. Beautiful location and it’s a beautiful spot by my booth. Definitely come by, check out Danielle. Danielle, if somebody wants to learn more about the credit union how do they do that in general?
Absolutely. So if you actually just want to kind of go check out the website yourself, you can go to www. certifiedfed. com or you can even call me directly at 909 504 7371. Love to get to know anybody that wants to know more about us. We have an amazing team of over a hundred and. 17 employees that are there to help you can even check out.
We have a mobile app that’s available for our members. That’s really nice and easy to go through. So yeah, www. certifiedfed. com. Wonderful. And for every listing, we’ll of course put the links into the show notes so you can just click on the links and head right on over and speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re putting out new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Danielle. Hey, I’m looking forward to meeting you in person over at the Megamix Expo. Thanks again for coming on the show.
Thank you so much, Adam. Looking forward to meeting you.