Category: MSG

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Uniting Strengths: The Marketing Systems Group and DataFORCE Merger

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In the dynamic landscape of business, mergers often signify exciting new horizons and opportunities for growth. Today, we are thrilled to announce a significant milestone in our journey: the merger of Marketing Systems Group and DataFORCE. This union marks the convergence of two industry leaders who have long been at the forefront of innovation, collaboration, and client satisfaction.

For years, Marketing Systems Group and DataFORCE have cultivated a strong partnership, working hand in hand to deliver exceptional solutions and services to our valued clients. Through shared values, mutual respect, and a relentless commitment to excellence, we have built a solid foundation of trust and reliability.

As we embark on this new chapter together, we are driven by a common vision: to leverage our collective strengths and resources to better serve our clients and elevate their success to new heights. By merging our talents, expertise, and technologies, we aim to redefine the standards of excellence in our industry and set new benchmarks for innovation and performance.

By combining our complementary capabilities, we are poised to deliver a broader range of solutions, tailored to meet the evolving needs and challenges of today’s marketplace. Clients can now look forward to an even more comprehensive range of products and services, ensuring their needs are met with a broader spectrum of options. With this merger, we can now offer a comprehensive solution to optimize your entire research process, covering end-to-end planning, printing, mailing, fulfillment, data collection, and analytics – all managed internally!  From advanced analytics and data-driven insights to cutting-edge marketing strategies and technology solutions, we are committed to empowering our clients with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive in a competitive landscape.

Moreover, the merger will enable us to optimize our operations and streamline processes, resulting in greater efficiency and agility. By aligning our teams and resources more closely, we can leverage economies of scale and drive cost savings, ultimately enabling us to deliver even more competitive pricing and value to our clients.

Importantly, we recognize that the success of this merger hinges on the strength of our people. Our talented team members are the heart and soul of our organizations, and their dedication, expertise, and passion are what drive our collective success. As we move forward together, we are committed to fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and continuous learning, where everyone can thrive and make a meaningful impact.

In the coming weeks and months, we will be working diligently to ensure a seamless transition for our clients, partners, and employees. We understand that change can sometimes be challenging, but we are fully committed to supporting you every step of the way and ensuring that you continue to receive the highest level of service and support.

In closing, we are incredibly excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and the opportunity to embark on this journey together. The merger of Marketing Systems Group and DataFORCE represents a bold step forward in our collective evolution, and we are confident that, together, we will achieve even greater success and create lasting value for our clients and stakeholders.

Thank you for your continued trust and partnership. We look forward to the journey ahead.

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Meet MSG’s New President, Srinath Sankar

On By MSG BloggerIn MSGLeave a comment
Srinath Sankar

Marketing Systems Group is proud to announce the appointment of Srinath Sankar, as President. Srinath has over 20 years of data and technology experience, including a decade of strategic growth and plan execution for MSG. Srinath is poised to lead the company in its mission to help customers use data and technology to enable research.

Ever since he started at MSG, Srinath has championed core values like quality of service, product efficiencies, innovation, and flexibility. 

“I am very excited to lead the MSG team,” Srinath says. “Marketing Systems Group is a talented team that has earned the reputation of keeping the customer at the center of the solutions we offer.  As the industry evolves through technology migrations and data availability, I believe MSG can provide a cost effective and timely suite of products and services to help organizations with their research operations and data needs.”

Srinath received a BS Computer Technology degree from PSG College of Technology, India, a Post Graduate diploma in Management Information Systems, and an MBA from the Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University.  

Using his expertise in Data Mining and Business, Srinath has developed a keen eye for emerging business challenges and the most relevant variables impacting those challenges. His consistent focus has been on solutions where business and technology merge: improving data products and boosting engagement with panelists, customers, and clients.  

When he was Sr. VP of Product Development, Srinath played a vital role in the evolution of MSG’s data products and the ARCS platform. In this role, he envisioned a new future for ARCS—where panel management and recruitment, kept participant engagement at its core. He built multimode management options into ARCS, gave it an international scope, and expanded its global support team. Srinath shepherded the product as it evolved to meet customers’ needs over the last decade—improving its analytics, engagement features, and data visualization tools resulting in an accelerated product growth in multiple verticals. 

Ask anyone around the office, and you’ll hear what an incredibly hard worker Srinath is. You’ll hear stories about his early years at the company when he’d stay up all night in the office, just to solve a thorny tech problem, or meet a customer’s needs. You’ll hear how he’s always been a quick study, persistent in his quest to keep learning, keep innovating. You’ll hear about his fundamental sense of fairness, how he treats team members and customers with utmost respect. To see a good guy as capable as Srinath rise through the company ranks and get to this point is genuinely satisfying for us all. 

Congrats, Srinath!

To learn more read DRNO’s (Daily Research News Online) article here.

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Back to the Office… Some of the Time

On By MSG BloggerIn MSGLeave a comment

Since the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, the staff at Marketing Systems Group has been working from home. Since the Summer of 2022, that’s changed. We are back to the office on a hybrid work schedule. We learned a lot in the past two years about productivity including work/life balance, and we’re taking those lessons back to the office with us. 

We’re not alone in this migration back to the office, at least on a part-time basis. A June 2022 report from JLL Work Dynamics called The Workforce Preferences Barometer indicates that a majority of workers (55%) have gone hybrid. What’s also true is that the days of exclusively working from home have pretty much ceased. 73% of office workers work at least once a week at the office. Another trend on the upswing is the increasing flexibility of hybrid work. It no longer means working either at home or at the office. More workers are collaborating in third locations and satellite offices. For some, it’s the local coffee shop or hotel lounge. For others, it’s a convenient co-working facility. 

What Have We Learned Working From Home? 

Productivity did not suffer at all. In fact, many of us are getting more done at home, because we don’t lose chunks of the day sitting in a car commuting back and forth to the office. While the convenience and productivity of working at home have been huge pluses for us, there have also been downsides. 

We have found that mentoring, training, collaborating, and social bonding have markedly suffered. MSG is a small company that has always cultivated a family-like atmosphere. Many of us have been here for many years. As some employees move into retirement and as we bring new and younger hires into the fold, we want to make sure we don’t lose the tight bonds that have kept us working as a team.

There’s just no substitute for being in the same place together. JLL’s research confirms this. 25% of employees feel isolated, 50% miss social interactions when working from home, and 44% miss the common understanding and bonding that stems from being together in the workplace. 

To that end, we’re seeking ways to balance the best of both worlds: flexible work-from-home schedules and making the most of face-to-face time. The return to the office is not without challenges as reported in Vox.com, but for small companies that rely so much on social bonding, we think the value of being together, in the same space, at the same time, some of the time, is worth holding onto. 

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Information Security: Your Peace of Mind is Our Responsibility

On By MSG BloggerIn MSGLeave a comment

Protecting the integrity of customer data and ensuring its reliability has always been in our DNA. In the constantly changing landscape of cyber threats, organizations need a robust set of processes and specialized individuals to ensure that new risks are monitored, and systems are adapted accordingly.

To that end, we are proud to announce that Marketing Systems Group recently achieved ISO 27001 certifications. ISO 27001 is an international standard that details requirements for establishing, maintaining, and updating an information security management system (ISMS).

This standard requires systematic examination of information security risks, design and implementation of controls and risk treatments, as well as adoption of a management process to continuously meet ongoing security needs.

How Do We Implement This?

As we see it, information security has two parts that must be executed in tandem:

  1. Implementing information protection
  2. Monitor the implementation and improve as new threats surface  

Implementing security controls around information is a lot like measures we take to physically secure our home and family.

You Would Do the Following:

  • You would look for a home in a nice neighborhood.
  • Keep an eye out and control your visitors and what they do in your home. In essence, who plays in the sandbox with our kids and what do they play?
  • You would install a home monitoring system so that you are made aware of any threats.
  • You would educate yourself and your kids on staying safe, communicating their activities, and set rules on what is allowed and what is not.
  •  You would create a “Plan B” that will allow you to find a safe way out in case of an emergency.

We follow a similar model when it comes to protecting information:

  • A nice neighborhood – We ensure that our data resides in data centers that have proper security controls in place.
  • Who plays in the sandbox – We ensure that all vendors and partners, in specific the ones who deal with our data have similar controls in place by conducting risk analysis with them on regular intervals. We also ensure that proper access controls are in place.
  • Monitoring – All our environments are monitored 24/7 and we have dedicated and trained staff in charge of security and threat monitoring.
  • Continuous education – We provide continuous training to all our staff members on information security and risks. We also conduct simulated threat assessments to understand preparedness by our staff members.
  • Plan B – We develop disaster and business continuity plans that account for how we would recover and communicate with stakeholders to get back on our feet to continue providing services to our customers.

4 Steps for Continuous Improvement (PDCA):

  1. Plan – As part of our operating procedure, we retrospect problems and collect useful information to evaluate security risk and root cause. We then define policies and procedures that can be used to address root causes of problems. Next, we develop methods to establish continuous improvements to information security management capabilities.
  2. Do – We implement the developed security policies and procedures based on best practices.
  3. Check – We monitor effectiveness of ISMS policies and controls and evaluate tangible outcomes as well as behavioral aspects associated with the ISM processes.
  4. Act – We continuously improve by means of documenting results, sharing knowledge, and using feedback loops to address future iterations of the PCDA model implementation of policies and controls.

Certified, Authorized, and Compliant

SOC 2 Type II Certification – Our cloud data centers are SOC 2 Type II certified for the trust principles of Security, Availability, and Confidentiality.

ISO 27001Certifications – Marketing Systems Group achieved ISO 27001 certifications. For more information about ISO 27001, check out the ISO website.

All certificates and reports can be provided upon request.

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Key Advantages of Advanced Cellular Frame (ACF) Over Traditional RDD

On By MSG BloggerIn Genesys, MSGLeave a comment

In a previous blog we introduced you to one of Marketing Systems Group’s newer products, Advanced Cellular Frame (ACF). This time, we will discuss how the frame is compiled and the key advantages it brings you compared to traditional RDD by itself.

Let’s start with a few key facts. When we do a traditional RDD sample of a county or group of counties, the telephone numbers within that frame are defined using rate center geography. The RDD frame has zero bearing on your ability to place numbers geographically outside of a rate center geography. It’s just not built for that capability.

With ACF, we have a better ability to actually place numbers within the correct geography, because we have more known information about more of the numbers (approximately 45% of them).  

The Power of Split Frames

ACF can split an RDD frame into two pieces:

  • The listed / matched phone numbers we have information about for a particular geography
  • Everybody else, including unlisted / unmatched

The listed component we can put precisely within whatever target geography you’re doing, if it’s a ZIP Code, county or a CBSA.

The unlisted or unmatched numbers get pulled in using the old traditional rate center methodology, but we pull only the unlisted ones. All listed and matched numbers are excluded from this component.  

A County-level Example

To illustrate how this all works, check out our Coffee Quip videos, specifically episode #3 featuring Subject Matter Expert David Malarek. There you will see him explain a case involving Multnomah County Oregon, home to the city of Portland.

The ACF frame does a better job targeting an RDD sample within Multnomah county. Dave shows how you can take the listed and unlisted portions and create a split frame, in which you can sample the listed’s independent of the unlisted’s or unmatched.

The ACF RDD universe is about 1.5 million numbers. About one-third of them are listed. We know they are in Multnomah county. The balance of the records (993,000) are coming from the rate centers that best fit Multnomah county geography.

But remember, rate center geography does NOT conform to any census geography we are accustomed to. It doesn’t conform to counties or city boundaries. Rate center geography is really just based on where the telephone companies run their wire lines.

This means you will have some over coverage and some under coverage, because you could miss a spot within the county or flow into adjacent counties outside the county.

With a split frame, you get the two components of ACF RDD that best fit Multnomah county.

How We Address the Migration Problem with ACF

Now we hit the biggest advantage of ACF: how it addresses migration — people who have a cell phone in one part of the country then move to another part of the country but keep the old cell number tied to the old rate center geography.

For the “known” listed cellular telephone numbers, ACF allows us to identify people who have migrated from other parts of the country into Multnomah County, Oregon. Conversely, we can exclude from the frame everybody who moved out of Multnomah County.

If you had defined the frame by rate center and just did a traditional cellular RDD sample, a huge chunk of those listed numbers would actually be outside the county. And you would be excluding 27% of the numbers inside Multnomah county from your sample frame. Not good.

Simply put, ACF does a better job in terms of getting the people who really live in your target geography into the sample frame and leaving out the people who’ve left.  

What About Lower-level Geographies?

ACF is great for smaller geographies, especially city limits not easily defined by rate center, which tend to be fairly large. Rate centers might serve four or five dozen different communities; whereas with ACF (at least for the listed portion) you can pinpoint a town or city you want to sample and exclude the other towns around it.

You can see why we are so excited about Advanced Cellular Frame; it enriches the sample and empowers you to target smaller geographies with more precision.

For more details, check out Coffee Quip episode #3, with Subject Matter Expert David Malarek or click here.

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Building on Tradition: How Advanced Cellular Frame Adds Diversity to RDD

On By MSG BloggerIn Genesys, MSGLeave a comment

Is it possible to take traditional RDD cellular telephone sampling and make it better? The answer is yes, thanks to one of our newer products, Advanced Cellular Frame (ACF). 

Advanced Cellular Frame is built upon the traditional RDD frame. It takes all possible telephone numbers in the RDD frame and adds something more. This makes for a much more versatile sampling tool, both for doing RDD and a targeted sample. 

How is ACF Compiled? 

Think of it as one database with two components inside. First, there’s the matched component. In the old days, this was known as “Listed.”  Second, there’s “everything else”: the unmatched, unlisted, unassigned telephone numbers.

We take the original RDD frame, which includes every single thousand block that was dedicated to cellular servers. Next, we identify all the telephone numbers from a set of half a billion or so. We advance the frame by attaching as much ancillary data to the numbers as we can: names, addresses, individual demographics, household demographics, and geography. 

Let’s say you’d like to do a targeted sample. For that, we would go into the database and fish out those telephone numbers matching the specific geographic and demographic criteria that you are targeting. 

If you want to do an RDD, we go in and include everything within the geography you are sampling. All numbers have an equal probability of selection both from the listed (matched) component and the unlisted component. 

KEEPING DATA FRESH

The database is updated quarterly.  It’s true that with any database on the marketplace, there’s always going to be aging. There will be lag time between the vendor compiled data and loading it into a production environment.  We compensate for the lag by sending selected telephone numbers out for a real-time name and an address append. 

Because people tend to move over time for one reason or another, this method ensures that we are appending the most current information available in terms of names and addresses, for the sample we provide. 

ADDRESSING THE MIGRATION PROBLEM

So, what happens when for example, a person in the listed portion (name and address) was geocoded, but that person actually moved? Many of these people will have carried their existing telephone number from one geography to the new one. Will Advanced Cellular Frame RDD move that number to the new frame? 

Yes, the person will be identified based off the new address. That’s the beauty of the ACF frame. It does an excellent job at addressing migration. You can include for your target geography (like a state) all phone numbers from all area codes across the country of people who it so turns out have actually moved into that geography. 

The converse is true as well. Anyone who has moved out of state will be excluded from the frame. 

This improves your coverage and the quality of data collection and cuts down on collection costs. 

HOW ACCURATE IS ACF?

Advanced Cellular Frame pulls on new technology to try to accurately link a telephone number to a name and address. It utilizes ID authentication, the technology used to validate transactions online. That information is used to help clean up and tighten up the ACF frame, which significantly boosts the matching accuracy.

WHAT ABOUT WORKING RATE?

You would expect a 75% to 80% overall working rate in ACF. That working rate jumps up to about 95% within the listed portion because there’s so much information known about those telephone numbers that they’re actually known to be working. The result is a much higher working rate than a traditional RDD frame.  

LEARN MORE

To learn more about ACF, click here and check out the first video episode of our YouTube series “Coffee Quip” an informal series of information talks with a panel of MSG experts. In this episode, Hillary McDonough, Raj Bhai, and Greg Pizzola chat about Advanced Cellular Frame with subject matter expert David Malarek, Senior Vice President of sampling and database services. 

Follow us on YouTube here for more Coffee Quip Episodes!

MSG data fusion techniques seed new growth opportunities for fresh-foods company

On By MSG BloggerIn MSGLeave a comment

What does the word Fusion mean to you? You might identify that term with nuclear power, the holy grail of carbon-free energy creation. Or you might think of Jazz fusion, the blend of traditional jazz instrumentation with electronic rock instruments. In the market research industry, fusion refers to the powerful melding of data from various sources with analytical and segmentation intelligence to account for challenges and deficiencies in survey research. 

While there is no doubt that customer surveys will always play a key role in forming business strategies, the fact of the matter is, respondents are less likely to fill out long and complex questionnaires than they used to be. We live in a world of diminishing returns.

But this is only half the picture. When it comes to ancillary data from commercial sources, the harvest of quality data about consumers is a rich and bountiful yield. Companies now have the power to augment their internal customer data with supplemental external data. 

What kinds of data do we have in mind? Think about how data such as granular geodemographics, socioeconomic characteristics, attitudinal and behavioral indicators could augment existing surveys and records. This is where the fusion concept applies. By fusing some or all of these aspects, you are likely to get a fuller, more accurate picture of your customer base. 

MSG’s data scientists work with clients to pull data from various sources, apply nuanced analytical and segmentation techniques to it, then output a robust, empirical basis for business decision making. Fusing data, then applying advanced analytics, means businesses are less in the dark than before. By reaching beyond simple statistical analysis, better inferences and more nuanced decisions can be made. 

Client Case Study

To see how this works in the real world, read this case study about one of our clients is in the fresh-fruits and vegetables delivery business. They take fresh produce that isn’t pretty enough to go on the supermarket shelves, which might otherwise go to waste, and get it into the hands of customers. The problem was the company didn’t know enough about their current customer base to be able to formulate a plausible growth plan. They knew that new market opportunities were out there, but they didn’t know where to look for them, because data items for each customer were scant. They needed better answers to questions like 

  • What are the key characteristics of profitable customers across multiple markets?
  • What characteristics differentiate loyal customers from the rest?
  • Which geo-demographic segments include higher concentrations of loyal customers?
  • How can loyal customers be located in new markets?

To tackle these questions, MSG developed a fusion plan involving an array of techniques:

  • Map creation and plotting of all current customer locations
  • Individual and household demographic variables appended to each customer.
  • Classification and regression analytics used to zero-in on key predictors. 
  • A series of spatial analyses to identify geographic clusters in new markets similar to existing markets.

Check out the full case study to see how the company achieved a much better grasp of their good recurring customers, where they were clustered geographically, what they looked like demographically, and what areas in markets of interest had the highest likelihood of potential new customers (people with similar demographics as the known customers).

Fusion of internal and external data can help your company to fill in the knowledge gaps, make more accurate inferences, and seed growth opportunities for new products, services, and markets. 

The Advantages of the Advanced Cellular Frame

On By AdamIn MSGLeave a comment

One of the strengths of MSG’s new Advanced Cellular Frame is its ability to address inward and outward migration of cellular telephone users.  This feature allows for the employment of Disproportionate Stratified Sampling (DSS) designs – or in other vernacular – split-frame designs. We can illustrate this using a typical scenario.  

Say you are targeting a metro area like Multnomah County, OR – home to the city of Portland.  There are, in essence, three ways you can define a cellular telephone sample frame targeting Multnomah County. 

One method is using a traditional EPSEM (equal probability of selection method) RDD design.  This is the method that has been around for well over 10 years.   We first identify the rate centers that best fit Multnomah County.  Every possible telephone number in the cellular thousand blocks (first 7 digits of a telephone number) that originate from the selected rate centers make up the sample frame.  This RDD frame design contains a mixture of working and non-working/unassigned telephone numbers. 

Multnomah County, OR 
RDD Frame (Traditional EPSEM) 2,057,000 100.0% 
Listed In-Area 348,497 16.9% 
Listed Out of Area 804,686 39.1% 
Unlisted/Unassigned 903,817 43.9% 

This method, however, has some serious drawbacks, but more importantly, it does not address migration – people who have moved in and out of Multnomah County and kept their cellular telephone number.   Look at the highlighted line in the table above.  39% of the RDD EPSEM frame is known to be outside of Multnomah County.  Additionally, the RDD EPSEM frame excludes anyone who has since moved into the county from other parts of the country.  The result of this behavior is high under coverage and high out-of-area.  It’s simply an inefficient and costly design. 

The Advanced Cellular Frame dramatically improves upon the shortcomings of the traditional RDD design.  We can still employ an EPSEM design by including both known and unknown cellular telephones.  But, this design addresses the migration issue.   Look at the highlighted row in the table below.  This design now includes cellular numbers for individuals who have since moved into Multnomah County from other parts of the state or country (inward migration).  It also excludes cellular numbers known to be outside Multnomah County (outward migration).  This all but erases the inefficiencies of dialing known out of area out of area numbers while at the same time improving in-area coverage.  This design is still an EPSEM methodology because it includes the unlisted/unassigned portion in order to provide full coverage of Multnomah County.  When sampling, every telephone number has an equal probability of selection.  

Multnomah County, OR 
ACF Frame (EPSEM) 1,449,089 100.0% 
Listed 545,272 37.6% 
In Area 348,497 24.0% 
Inward migration 196,775 13.6% 
Outward migration 0 0.0% 
Unlisted/Unassigned 903,817 62.4% 

Building on the improved EPSEM design noted above is the fact that we can now employ Disproportionate Stratified Sample designs (DSS) using the Advanced Cellular Frame.  We can separate the Listed and Unlisted/Unassigned components of a sample frame into individual strata.  This enables you to sample the more efficient listed stratum at a higher rate and under sample the less efficient unlisted/unassigned stratum at a lower rate.  Every number in the cellular sample frame still has a probability of selection but DSS will yield a more productive sample over a simple EPSEM design. 

Click Here to learn more about the Advanced Cellular Frame today!

Coffee Quip: an insightful new video series about survey research topics that matter

On By MSG BloggerIn MSGLeave a comment

Have you ever noticed how many of the best workplace conversations tend to happen around the water cooler or the coffee lounge? When coworkers converse in the midst of informal “stop and chat” spaces, they are more candid than they would be in an official meeting. Often, they tell better stories, too. You can pick up a lot of useful knowledge from experts by hanging around such spaces.  

To emulate those kinds of conversations, we would like to introduce you to Coffee Quip, a new MSG series of short video chats between a panel of product and subject matter experts. 

Click Here to Watch Now

The field of survey research is an ever more complex and dynamic one, and it can be hard to get at the inside knowledge needed to accomplish what you want to do. At MSG, we want our customers to benefit from the experience and wisdom of industry-leading Subject Matter Experts. They are the Yoda, the Obi-Wan, the architects of our products and services. They know how survey research gets done, what works and what doesn’t, and why.   

Coffee Quip: Need to Know Info That’s Easy to Watch 

Sometimes the best things come in small packages, and too much of a good thing can get to be too much. Sure, you can gain quality industry knowledge is by attending a formal webinar, but that can be time consuming. In light of this reality, we have produced each Coffee Quip episode to run a mere 8 to 12 minutes, less time than it takes to down your first cup of morning java.  

The informal, light, unscripted discussions are hosted by Marketing and Communications team member Greg Pizzola. You will learn about critical and timely survey research topics and products, such as Advanced Cellular Frame, Hybrid Sampling, and our ARCS platform. You also get to see members of our Sales Development and Customer Success teams, who are on the front lines working with clients every day. They pose the kinds of questions to our experts that customers are asking them.   

Coffee Quip is about your needs and interests, and we encourage you to submit topics for future discussion. Send your questions and topic ideas to SusanEmery@m-s-g.com

Make sure to subscribe to the MSG YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of the upcoming episodes.  

Stepping Out: Pushing the reset button in the wake of Covid19

On By MSG BloggerIn MSGLeave a comment

What a difference a year makes. In Summer 2020, many of us were in lockdown/quarantine mode, working from home, learning how to Zoom, hoarding toilet paper, trying to stay patient, hoping for vaccines to come. We dealt with the fear of getting sick, the isolation, and we grieved the loss of friends and loved ones. By any measure, it was a tough year, about as far from “normal” as you can get. 

The year 2021 feels distinctly different, doesn’t it? In the United States at the time of this writing, nearly half the population is fully vaccinated. Slowly, surely, we are beginning to feel more empowered. We can see the end of the pandemic, or at least it feels like we’ll be able to manage it. Schools and workplaces are opening up. The masks are coming off.  

It’s strange how the things we used to take for granted feel alien to us now. Things like going out to eat, visiting friends and family, entering a shopping mall, going to a house of worship, traveling. It’s like we have to relearn how to be normal. As a cartoon in the New Yorker said it so well, “I forget how to people.” It’s like we have to figure out how to start over again. How do we reboot our lives? 

We have learned a lot about ourselves in the past year, who we are, who we want to be, and what truly matters. Here’s a thought. Maybe, as we step gingerly back into the life stream, we will remember the daily practices of self-care that guided us through a very trying year. Maybe we won’t forget to appreciate the simple pleasures and the people that matter.  

As life begins to open up and we relearn how “to people,” remember to be patient with others and yourself. Here’s to a summer and a “new normal” that feels better, calmer, and more comfortable. We hope you enjoy everything the summer has to offer!