Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future Chapter 1 The Theory of DeathCare We are all familiar with the parable of the six blind men describing an elephant. As we struggle with imagining the future of funeral service a survey of trade journal articles and convention agendas can’t help but bring this parable to mind. [...]
For months now I have been telling DeathCare that the wind is changing in our favor. The public attitude toward death and dying is changing at the GLOBAL level. For the present those involved in this are all "grass roots" initiatives springing up independent of each other wherever I look. I have examples in Singapore [...]
My friend, Ed Mazur of Kapinos-Mazur Funeral Home, ran a very successful PR / Public Service program in his local community. The campaign featured this poster and newspaper ads. Weekends were set aside to encourage parents to clean out unused medication from their medicine cabinets and bring them to the funeral home. On the first [...]
Here is an excerpt of an interrogation of a witness in a Massachusetts trial court: Lawyer: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? Doctor: no. Lawyer: did you check for blood pressure? Doctor: no. Lawyer: so, it’s possible the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? Doctor: [...]
last week in my article "Funerals as Counter Culture" I made a bold statement: "After 50 years of steady decline in public attitudes towards funerals the pendulum is swinging back our way. Like Croci in the spring, the signs are poking through the frost..." No sooner was that article published than I was exposed to [...]
Marketing experts tell us that we should be able to express our unique selling proposition (USP) in such a compelling way in less than 60 seconds that the hearer will ask to know more. Here is great two step way to do that. Purpose: Create interest and dialogue about what you do and the value [...]
In the past few weeks I have used strong negative language: Cowardice...Fight... Neglect Please understand: this is not an emotional reaction on my part. Instead, it is an intentional effort to call you out. And it is this "intentionality" that I encourage you to undertake as well. It is time we, as a profession, [...]
[Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information.] Much of my career has involved business turnarounds. This experience serves me well as a funeral home consultant. Over the course of more than 30 years I have learned a lot about human nature. [...]
I serve on the Board of Directors of a community bank based in Orlando, Florida. In that capacity I receive frequent educational correspondence and one I received this week highlighted the striking similarities between what we do and banking. The author says: "Bankers often forget that they are in a retail business where [...]