Greetings!,

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by market and sales tactics? Recently, Karen and I had 2 events happen that have seemed to flood us with sales people.

The first and longer occurring event is that we are both turning 65 this year. Since I am a licensed health insurance agent and can provide Medicare supplement and advantage plans this has not been directed at me. However, Karen is getting calls, it seems, almost everyday and from even as far away as Traverse City to have "experts" go over her options with her. She has even been getting some mailed invitations to restaurants to go over he social security options.

Secondly, we had a hail storm on March 10. Our neighborhood feels like it has been overrun with people wanting to inspect our roof and help us file a claim. Some from area codes I do not recognize.

These do not even include the Facebook and Google ads we are getting as well.

Advertisers as a whole are expected to be spend $1.25 trillion dollars globally this year. Marketing as a whole $4.7 trillion with the bulk in digital advertising of $600 billion (numbers from Statistica.com). Google and Meta control 50.5% of the ad market, while Amazon accounts for 11%.

As a small business we of course do not have that type of marketing budget. If we did have a larger advertising budget I even wonder what it would take to get noticed?

In a world inundating you with buy this and do that, we feel it is better to stand out by what we are not and what we don't shout at people. Our firm, and our reputation, has grown by being servant leaders for those we provide service. We grow by inviting those who wish to provide recommendations and introductions. We strive to follow our calling and our creed to be a trusted advisor and not a marketing firm.



As always, thanks for reading.



Bernie & Chad