To Inspire: I (Matt) am reading a fascinating book, Building A Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, by Donald Miller. Source:  www.buildingastorybrand.com   The overall strategy he shares is powerful and can be applied broadly, including, even, our personal lives.  To illustrate, let me share the principles he uses – principles that […]

To Inform:  This Friday and Saturday, the G20 Summit of world leaders is being held in Osaka, Japan.  President Trump is already in Osaka as this note is being typed and multiple global issues will be discussed including global climate change, North Korea denuclearization, and tensions with Iran. Source:  www.G20.org   Perhaps the biggest focus […]

To Inspire: Source: www.csw.osu.edu   Mark and I attended a reception last night in celebration of the 100th anniversary of OSU’s College of Social Work, founded in 1919.  Our father, Joe Palmer, was an alum of the College and a member of their Hall of Fame.  The event was held in a large hangar at […]

To Inspire: As our nation celebrates Father’s Day this Sunday, we thought you might enjoy learning a bit of its history. Scholars claim that it can be traced back 4000 years to Babylon when a young boy’s Father’s Day message in clay wishing his father good health and long life was discovered recently. Our modern […]

To Inform:  Earlier this week, I (Travis) attended J.P. Morgan’s Wealth Management conference in New York City.  The two-day conference was an opportunity to hear the big picture outlook on markets from J.P Morgan’s Chief Global Strategist, views on asset classes from multiple portfolio managers, and perspectives on how firms like The Joseph Group can […]

To Inspire: “Greater love hath no man but that he lay down his life for his friends.” These words, spoken by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, rang with poignant truth 75 years ago when on June 6, 1944, 150,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on the shores of northern France to help liberate that […]

To Inform:  Late last year, the idea the Federal Reserve might actually CUT interest rates in 2019 seemed like an impossibility.  After all, the Fed increased short term interest rates in December of last year and economists widely expected the Fed to continue to increase rates by as many as 3-4 times in 2019.  Expectations […]

To Inspire: Perhaps last Sunday you saw the CBS Sunday Morning feature on Curtis Jenkins, a bus driver for Lake Highlands Elementary School in Dallas, TX. Curtis Jenkins (Source: www.cbsnews.com)   At first blush, one might be tempted to see his job as relatively unimportant.  But Curtis sees it otherwise – he has made himself […]

To Inform:  Is Trump’s decision to raise tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion dollars’ worth of Chinese goods impacting consumer behavior?  It sure did at the Upton house.  Here is the story: My wife has wanted to replace our kitchen floor for years.  Our kitchen has the original vinyl flooring from when our […]

To Inspire: Tis the graduation season and I (Matt) always look forward to commencement addresses.  This year did not disappoint as Lisa and I drove over to Blacksburg, VA for the graduation of our niece from Virginia Tech.  The commencement address was given by Frank Beamer, the former longtime head football coach and a man […]