Funeral X Podcast

Lori Salberg is back to announce the winners of Performance Tracker's 2021 Excellence in Customer Service Awards. Lori explains the criteria and methodology for the selection process for the awards and then announces the Top 5 Firms in the 3 categories. If you are interested in learning more about Performance Tracker, book a demonstration with Lori, just select a time in her calendar that is convenient for you: https://meetings.hubspot.com/lori123 See the complete transcript here: Robin Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I am joined today by our special guest, Lori Salberg, from J3Tech Solutions. Welcome back, Lori. Lori Salberg: Thanks Rob. It's great to be back. It's always fun to sit down and chat about all things funeral. Robin Heppell: Yes, for sure. And now this is pretty cool, this is the first time that I'm really understanding the Performance Tracker, Excellence in Customer Service Awards. And I know that you and your team have been working hard, making all the tallies and getting the information out there. And I thought, "Hey, why don't we get you on Funeral X to explain it to the folks of what it is and how these firms are qualifying and winning these awards." And I've had you on before about Performance Tracker, for the folks that may not have heard that, just give a quick little background about Performance Tracker and how it helps the various firms in funeral service. Lori Salberg: Yes, thanks. So Performance Tracker is a platform that we like to call our customer experience command center. So it's a way for funeral homes to really track and measure how well their people are performing in order to see how well their funeral home is performing really. And so generally we look at two things. We look at the family feedback. It's too simple to say, it's just a survey, because it's not. We do send surveys out, but we're trying to really understand how the family experience was, how they felt about their experience with the funeral home every step of the way. And then we take their responses and we look at that against their sales. So we're actually able to pull in contract information from any POS system, or wherever you write your contracts, and we're able to break down by case type for every call that you have, not only what you're selling and who's selling it, but how those people who are selling it are doing in relation to what a family is feeling about their experience, right? So measuring customer experience along with the sales and putting that together really gives you a good picture into how you're actually performing and where you might need to work on getting better. Robin Heppell: Hey, Lori, this just kind of occurred to me then. So this is a little off-topic, but I'm interested, if then as you're tracking revenues, right? On an average order sale or average funeral value, is there a disconnect of maybe the more they spend, the less satisfied they are? Or do they both go up, maybe the more they spend, the happier they are? Or is there not a relationship there? Lori Salberg: Generally, you would think that and generally you would see that, that there is a correlation with people are willing to spend more when the experience is better. Right? But typically you're also seeing that they spend, and then they report back the experience. And that sometimes you're seeing that, I was with an organization today looking at some of their results, and I find it always interesting because we're able to look at how an actual arranger performs in comparison to the overall business. Right? So we ask questions related to all of the touchpoints within the family's experience or journey with the funeral home. And we can pull out just the funeral arranger, the questions, so how was the arrangement experience? And so that's very clearly looking at that arranger, right? And so we're able to say, so overall, for instance, this family is given us,

Guest Nelson Thulin joins Funeral X to explain the benefits of Employee Incentive Compensation Plans and what factors should be considered when creating an incentive plan. For more information about the incentive plan for your firm, you can contact Nelson at 480-556-8510 or nthulin@johnsonconsulting.com. See the complete transcript here: Robin Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined today by special guest, Nelson Thulin from Johnson Consulting. Hey there, Nelson. Nelson Thulin: Hello, Rob. Robin Heppell: Hey, great to have you on Funeral X. And as we get going, maybe could you let the folks who are listening know what you do at Johnson Consulting? Nelson Thulin: Sure. In fact, my boss is probably wondering that too. I'm the Director of Business Consulting at one of the divisions within the Johnson Consulting group, and we specifically worked business owners, thought leaders to develop strategies to improve their businesses and hopefully have an impact on funeral service as a whole. Robin Heppell: Cool. Now, I know we'll get into a specific topic in a little bit, but let's dig into you a little bit further. Can you give a little bit more about your background, where you grew up? Nelson Thulin: Yes. In fact, probably what's more meaningful for everybody than whether or not I was born in a log cabin in central Illinois would be my career path has been about 35 years in the making. I started off just working for a mom-and-pop operation with about 100 calls. I ventured on to eventually buy into some funeral homes, built a new funeral home, bought and sold and all that went into that. Eventually found myself within the corporate structure and through a process of multiple mergers and acquisitions I ended up, my management career in funeral service overseeing 15 funeral homes doing about 3,500 funerals a year with about 200 plus employees across the group. So I understand what it means to have a team meeting when there are 2 people and a cup of coffee involved or when there are 40 people in a room and you're trying to explain the newest initiatives. And so I think if anything else, that is my greatest strength is just understanding the variety of different types of businesses that are in funeral service and can relate to them and the employees and everybody that's a stakeholder, so. Robin Heppell: Yes, especially from all those different levels. Hey, Nelson, how did you get introduced to Johnson Consulting? Or when did you make that jump from where you were, I guess in the funeral corporate world to working with Jake? Nelson Thulin: Yes. So as far as Johnson Consulting goes I think if you keep your eyes open and your interest upon funeral service in general, you're going to hear about Johnson Consulting. So over the course of, I guess now I'm at about 36 years in funeral service. And for about 30 of those, you would hear Johnson brought up in varying degrees, whether it was somebody working on a succession planning or a webinar or seminar or something like that. But actually, this month marks five years since I went in with Johnson's salting. I moved out of the corporate world and this opportunity existed and it's been a great utilization of my background. I tell people all the time that I'm basically still doing the job that I did for 18 years prior, because it's still talking about basic principles and how you can improve your operations, how you can impact the workplace and create a better environment for the people that are in that space with you. And of course, taking care of families and providing the highest levels of customer service, all of that I was focused either in my own business or working within the corporate structure for probably 18, 20 years of management now I can bring the bear for people that are looking for that, and maybe don't always have the resources of being a part of a large organization.

Jake reflects on his thought process and then the writing, publishing and promotion of his book: Staying Alive In The Funeral & Cemetery Profession: Building A Business, Weathering Changes, and Finding Growth in 2019. You can get your own copy of Jake's book by contacting the Johnson Consulting office at 1-888-250-7747 or email at info@johnsonconsulting.com. You can also purchase the book on Amazon / Audile here. See the complete transcript here: Robin Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake? Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. How's it going? Robin Heppell: Pretty good. We're getting back into the swing of things from being in Las Vegas at the ICCFA convention, it was good to see lots of faces down there. And I think today, what would be a great topic, we did talk a couple funeral results marketing, Google Ads sessions, and being at the convention our booths were across from each other. And on your side, you had a big stack of your books that you wrote, Staying Alive in the Funeral & Cemetery Profession. So I thought, hey, this would be a neat little shorter episode where we could just maybe talk about the process of writing the book, what's involved, how it can help folks, and how does that sound? Jake Johnson: Yes, happy to. Let's do it. Robin Heppell: Cool. Okay. So now the book was published there in 2019, so pre-pandemic. And how long had you been thinking about writing the book? Jake Johnson: It'd been a couple of years. I just thought that just the opportunities I got to experience through my father and the people that he did business with and his buying and selling career and running Pierce Brothers in California. It's just some cool stuff that comes from Batesville, Indiana, which is where you're either a casket salesman or you sell pre-need or you sell funerals. So it just seemed like a fun thing to do. And for me, I've mentioned this in presentations, but I've got a stack of books next to my bed that one day I'm going to get to, but I wanted to make it something that was easy to read, quick, I even got it and you can listen in audible version of the book as well. So something nice and easy. Robin Heppell: That's how I consumed at Jake. Yes, audible is great. Okay. Jake Johnson: I should have had Morgan Freeman do it, that would've been nice when all day I fall asleep. That'd be good. Robin Heppell: So when you're doing that, so you put your mind to it. You're starting to work on it. I know that it would be probably a challenge to, I know how busy you are. Any struggles with it or and then what was your philosophy on how you laid it out? Jake Johnson: Yes, it was difficult. It's like if you imagine that you look at a piece of land and you want to build a house there and then you got to figure out how to design the layouts and then what kind of tile and all that. It's very much the same for a book what was the purpose? I think what you should start with is who is this meant for? What is your goal in writing the book and then what it started from there and then morphed into the different chapters and then so really I created all the chapters and then I filled them in as I went through that journey from beginning to end. Robin Heppell: Cool. Now what about, were there any chapters or sections that you thought, oh the folks reading this probably aren't going to like the hard truth? Jake Johnson: Well, to me, I was curious because it changes so fast when I talk about innovation grow growth technology would that be as relevant? And when I wrote documented it as is today, and as you mentioned, I did this in 2019, and my God, Rob, you and I were just at the ICCFA convention, and how many more booths than we've ever seen of technology vendors. So it was just curious to me as I laid it out, just what it would be like in the quickly in the fu...

Guest Vince Roberge of Johnson Consulting Group talks through the process of strategic planning for funeral homes. He shares the best practices when conducting a strategic planning initiative and what firms can expect after completing the process. For more information about strategic planning for your firm, you can contact Vince at 480-556-8520 or vroberge@johnsonconsulting.com. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined by a special guest, Vince Roberge, from Johnson Consulting. Hey there, Vince. Vince Roberge: Hey, Rob. Thanks for having me today. Rob Heppell: Yes, this is great. Looking forward to it. Can you let the folks know, who are listening, what you do at Johnson Consulting? Vince Roberge: Sure, Yes. I'm working in a part of our business that is associated with business growth. So as you may know, and some of our listeners may know, people come to Johnson Consulting, operators come and give us a call and they're usually looking for one of two things. Either something related to moving on to the next chapter, selling a business, a big transition that looms or they're looking at solving a problem or growing their business. And so I work in that second part, the business growth aspect, and working with funeral home owners, funeral home operators in a variety of ways to just help them improve, help their businesses grow, help them achieve the potential that they have. Rob Heppell: Cool. Yes, lots of folks could use that help and it's good that you guys are there to provide that. Hey, now before we get into it and I think we'll go in a little bit deeper, let's find out a little bit about Vince. So where did you grow up? Vince Roberge: I am a native to the Metro Detroit area of Michigan. So born and raised in Metro Detroit. Went to school here, even went to college in the area. And I've travelled a bit, but spent my first couple of years with Johnson Consulting down in the Scottsdale area there. And I guess one of the little silver linings of the pandemic would be the ability to get back to my hometown area. So I'm based out of the Metro Detroit area currently. So that's where home is and that's where family and friends are. Rob Heppell: Oh, cool. And now what about funeral service? How did you get into the funeral profession? Vince Roberge: Well, I always like asking this question to any funeral director. I know you're a funeral director, I always like the good conversation with the funeral director, but everyone has their funeral service story, how they got into it. Mine, I think comes from, like any good journey has a story of being lost in the woods kind of thing, I think I could probably trace my funeral service story back to a time in my life when I was just wondering what was next. I had just graduated from college, was accepted into a couple of very good grad schools and that looked like the plan. At some point I deferred the admission to both of those and just wanted to make sure it was the right move and took a year, I wanted to take a year, and in the meantime spoke to a friend of a friend who is a manager of a very large cemetery in the Metro Detroit area. He said, Vince, if you're interested in a career that is service-oriented and a high degree of professionalism, something that is very real rewarding, I want you to go talk to Kevin down the street. He manages that funeral home down there, he'd be a good person to talk to. I followed the lead there and talked to Kevin and started out working at the funeral home unlicensed and I think the rest is history. I moved my way up from an apprentice to a licensed funeral director, to a manager, and Yes, it's been quite a trip. I never really thought I'd be where I am today, but like so many of those stories, it's the people in our lives and the relationships we have. Rob Heppell: For sure. So then,

As a follow-up to the previous Google Ads episode, Rob breaks down the structure of a Google Search Text Ad and his strategy when writing those ads. He also explains the keyword pruning process and cautions blindly accepting Google's Recommendations. For more information about Funeral Results Marketing, check out our Funeral Home Website section, Cremation Arrangement section or Digital Marketing Services section on our website or contact Rob at robin@funeralresults.com or at 1-800-810-3595. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. Rob Heppell: Hey, I know last time we kind of went deep into setting up your Google ads account and that's only about... Well, it's less than half of it, but I think it's a good solid half for people trying to understand how it works. And I hope that by giving them some of this information, they won't make some mistakes that I see there, or probably our ultimate goal will be for them to just have us do it. Jake Johnson: Well, I think it was awesome. I think there's so much to talk about in it and how it when done right, how it helps and then to understand also when it's going right but you haven't in the last episode, the negative keywords and things that you discussed. You can feel like you're having lots of success but you're spending too much getting it. So I think it was some great comments there and I look forward to diving further, man. Lay the knowledge. Rob Heppell: Okay. Well, and again, just so that we're... Just to frame this, this is basic stuff. We can get into down the road, very intricate things where you're pulling in a ton of different conversions and that conversion tracking. Generally speaking, you need a solid foundation, so we're going to just cover those things and... We're today too, we're going to really cover to make sure that Google's not stealing money from you and putting it solely into their pockets. Then what today we'll focus on is the ad creative, so creating the ads that people see when they search. And then we'll talk about keyword maintenance and account maintenance and recommendations. Folks have to realize that an ad is just one part of the process. So our path to success is going to first get in front of the person looking for a funeral home or a cremation provider, and that's what the ad does. So by all the things we talked about in the last episode, we now are at least up to the plate. We've got a chance to get in front of these people and the ad is going to move them to the next step. So part one is having the ad. Part two then is wherever we send them, so the landing page on the website. When they're on that landing page, there needs to be a compelling offer. So we don't want to get them too confused, don't put them on the homepage of the funeral home website because there are too many things going on. There are obits, there are directions, there are donations, there's about us and all that and pre-planning. If this for at-need when someone's typing in funeral homes, Phoenix, Arizona, there's a good chance that they're looking for a listing of businesses. Just like I like to say... And before it used to be great because we could be so granular. We could put funeral home and bid less on it than funeral homes because funeral home, usually is attached to Johnson Funeral Home, singular, whereas for funeral homes, usually it would be funeral homes in Scottsdale. So just if I wanted to go out for Chinese food and there's a specific restaurant, in Victoria, I would type in Golden Palace, Chinese restaurant, singular. And if I wanted to, I don't know where to go so I might type in Victoria Chinese restaurants, plural. Now, unfortunately, Google doesn't really allow us to be that granular because they say, "Well,

Rob shares his strategy in setting up Google Ads (formerly AdWords) campaigns for Funeral Homes and Cremation Providers who are trying to attract at-need first calls. He explains Bidding and Location settings and explains the importance of Ad Rank and the use of Negative Keywords. For more information about Funeral Results Marketing, check out our Funeral Home Website section, Cremation Arrangement section, or Digital Marketing Services section on our website or contact Rob at robin@funeralresults.com or at 1-800-810-3595. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Robin Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. Rob Heppell: How's it going today? Jake Johnson: Life is good, right? We're all living the dream. Rob Heppell: We are. Well, this is good. We're getting close to the spring here. Although I know in Arizona, you guys don't see many differences in the seasons, where we are, we yearn for the spring. Jake Johnson: Yes. We usually look for January, February, and March to just be repeatable, and that just never happens. Rob Heppell: Yes. I don't think other places up north here, near the 49th parallel, want any repeat of December, January, February. Jake Johnson: Yes, there's usually not much sympathy with my statement. Rob Heppell: Hey, today, I think we're going to go into, we've had some questions come in about Google Ads and getting it set up for a funeral home and getting it set up for online cremation. And I thought maybe I just run through like a best practices, like a 101 getting it set up. There are obviously going to be more advanced things to do, but obviously, we'd like to help folks out with these services. But I think just even having a better understanding, it's good to know at least what you're getting into, whether you do it or not versus being totally oblivious to all the things that go on inside those accounts. And as you know, it continues to change. Google keeps on changing the tactics they're trying. They are getting more artificial intelligence working and machine work in there. And it doesn't always favor funeral homes. So I thought I just run through that and maybe feel free to ask questions as we go, as you are a funeral home owner yourself in an online cremation business. Jake Johnson: I think it's definitely a valuable thing to go through. My first introduction to Google Ads, Rob, as you venture into explaining to everybody what it does, was for me it was like 2006 and I was asking my neighbor about it. And I said, "Do you do it?" He says, "Well, it's very much part of my business." He had an online training business. I said, "Well, how much do you spend?" I felt like a big guy. I spend 2,500 a month in ads spend and had these keyword campaigns I was constantly refining. And he said he spent about 30,000 a month. It just floored me.And I'll tell you what it was. It was a lesson though in something that, in sales, we don't see the big picture sometimes. And that's determining how much is the… I think you have the overall, you have [ROAS] I think you call, but the cost for the acquisition of the customer or whatever it is you're selling. And so for him 30,000 a month translated into exponential growth for his company. And I think we can all get blinded by costs and not realize what it's doing for our business, but as you know, and I'm sure you're going to share, I mean, there are certain things you need to be aware of because if you're spending, I'll use 2,500, if you're spending 2,500 incorrectly, then you're not getting the returns and you're just blowing money. But you're feeling good because you got Google Ads. I mean, there's definitely a trick to it and I learned a lot from you. So I think it's a good episode. Rob Heppell: Yes, you bet.

Lori is back with Jake and Rob in this episode and as the Co-Chair of the ICCFA Convention, she gives an overview of the event. Jake and Rob both talk about the presentations that they will be giving. ICCFA's Annual Convention is going to be held in Las Vegas from March 22nd to the 25th. For more information and registration details, visit www.ICCFA.com. #iccfa2022 See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X podcast. I'm Rob Heppell, and today I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson, and the director of J3Tech Solutions and Performance Tracker, Lori Salberg. Hey there, Lori. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: What's going on? Happy Friday. Rob Heppell: Yep. Lori Salberg: Hi, Rob, Jake. Rob Heppell: Awesome. Hey, now this is a bit of a unique episode, as we're getting ready for the ICCFA convention that's going to be held in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino from March 22nd to 25th. Lori's got a special part with that. She's the co-chair of the convention along with John Bolton, and both Jake and I are presenting on Friday, the final day of the convention. So I thought it would be good just to chat about ICCFA and what folks could be in for if they're going to make the trek to Vegas. So Lori, tell us about the convention. You're probably the best person to ask. What's happening this year? Lori Salberg: Yes, I think what's really exciting is that we haven't had a convention for two years. I know from experience, the sales and marketing, ICCFA, did talks in January, and there was just a different buzz in the air because people hadn't been together in a really long time. I don't expect anything less. In fact, I think it's going to be even more exciting going back to Vegas. Being at Mandalay Bay, of course, that's just a great venue. And again, just getting back face to face. But we're already seeing an uptake in registrations and definitely, people are excited to be able to get back. There are so many incredible programs going on. I'm most excited probably that we have four keynote speakers. I think that's more than we normally have. And all of them on topics that I think are most relevant to what's happening in the world and our businesses today. Really, the program starts on that Tuesday and runs through Thursday. There's a banquet Thursday night. But there are leadership sessions starting early on Tuesday, and then a grand opening of the expo hall on Tuesday night with a concert from the Oak Ridge Boys. So that's going to be fun, just to kick off the party, right? And then really, the keynote is what I'm most excited about. We were able to get... John and I talked about it when we were first asked to be co-chairs and we said, "We need to get some big names in here. Even though we have incredible professionals in our industry, let's look to some leaders outside of the industry and how we can look at our businesses differently and drive more opportunities for ourselves." So we thought about really wanting to get one of the sharks from the Shark Tank, and we're so excited that we were able to land Daymond John. So he is going to be heading up that Wednesday night. We've got two keynotes. He's one of them, of course. You really just don't want to miss that. He's going to be talking about branding yourself and branding your brand and all of that. He is a bestselling author of a couple of books related to that. I don't think I need to talk anymore about his credibility, but definitely one to not want to miss. And then that same day, we have Lynne Lancaster. She is an expert on really the generational divide, so she studies generations. We met with her and we talked at length about the change in generations right now is impacting our businesses as a whole, and she's going to talk about that. She's going to talk about the boomers and the Gen Xers and the millennials and gen Ys.

In this special Funeral X episode Rob interviews ICCFA Keynote presenter, Mark Scharenbroich, about his presentation: Nice Bike – Making Meaningful Connections. Immediately following Mark's presentation, Johnson Consulting Group, J3Tech Solutions & Funeral Results Marketing will be hosting Mark's book signing at our booths in the Expo Hall. ICCFA's Annual Convention is going to be held in Las Vegas from March 22nd to the 25th. For more information and registration details, visit www.ICCFA.com. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome to the Funeral X podcast. I am your host, Robin Heppell from Funeral Results Marketing. This is a special edition of the Funeral X podcast, as we are leading up to the ICCFA Convention that is going to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on March 22nd to the 25th, 2022. Today, I am joined by one of the keynote speakers for the ICCFA Convention, Mark Scharenbroich. Mark's from Minneapolis, Minnesota and he's the author of 'Nice Bike: Making Meaningful Connections on the Road of Life'. Hey Mark, are you there? Mark Scharenbroich: Rob, I'm with you all the way. Rob Heppell: Okay. Excellent. Now, I'll just let the listeners know that I caught you on your vacation before we put you to work. So, Mark's in Hawaii and enjoying some time with the family, but I really appreciate this opportunity. Hey- Mark Scharenbroich: Oh you're welcome. Great to be with you. Seriously. Rob Heppell: Great. Now, can you give us... I know that you're very well known in the speaking world. You've... A number of awards. You've got an Emmy to your name. Maybe though for the folks in funeral service, just give a little bit of background about yourself. Mark Scharenbroich: I've been in the speaking industry my entire career starting as a... In high school and college, I was in a comedy group that performed in schools and universities. High schools, universities. Ended up going in as a solo presenter, initially speaking to high schools as a high school assembly speaker for 25 years. About 3,500 high schools across North America, every province of Canada, every state in the U.S. And if you want to learn about being a speaker, you learned it in high school gymnasiums, where they are hoping that you fail. And then as kids grew up and got jobs as adults and had meetings, they sat around and said, "Hey, anybody hear of a speaker that they've heard recently?" And they go, "Yes, I heard a guy back in high school. Let me Google him and bring him to our event." And so as kids matured and got businesses, they brought me along. And that's transitioning from education into business. And that's where the career started. But the real message is all about 'Nice Bike' which is our whole brand. Rob Heppell: Mm-hmm. Can you share a little bit of the background without giving it away of what you're going to share in Vegas? Mark Scharenbroich: Well, you were a Harley rider at one point, weren't you Rob? Rob Heppell: Yes. I've had a couple of Harleys back before I was married there, Mark. Mark Scharenbroich: Marriage changed the situation, Rob? Rob Heppell: Yes, sometimes. Twice actually. Mark Scharenbroich: Hey, I'm not a Harley guy. I've never been on a Harley. I've never even sat one to this day. They're cool, don't get me wrong. But I was speaking to a group of educators. I'm from Minneapolis. Flew to Milwaukee for a presentation to educators. And I'm driving to Milwaukee and I realized that I just landed in the Harley Davidson 100 year anniversary for their company, there in Milwaukee. There were half a million bikers at that event. And I was just curious. It just looked cool. And I'd go walk in through there and pull my car over. And I pull over to a venue and you'd see all these Harleys and Harley riders. I remember just seeing these big guys with the big beard, Game of Thrones, tattoos, du-rags,

Jake shares his insights and study of Customer Service and the approach he and the team at Johnson Consulting take to improve customer service internally and how they help funeral businesses do the same. He then explains the financial impact that an increasing or decreasing level of customer service has on a firm's profitability and eventual valuation. For more information about the Johnson Consulting Group, check out the website or contact Jake at jjohnson@johnsonconsulting.com or at 1-888-250-7747. For more information about J3Tech Solutions' Performance Tracker, book a demonstration with Lori Salberg in her calendar that is convenient for you: https://meetings.hubspot.com/lori123 See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I am joined with my funeral results, marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. How's it going? Rob Heppell: Pretty good. Things are good and joy. Some good feedback from our previous episodes of the podcast. I think people are getting to hear us and ask questions and things like that. One thing that we should talk about is customer service. I know that Johnson Consulting and Performance Tracker, that's a big focus of what you do in the overall part of the success pillars that you promote there at Johnson Consulting. I thought maybe you could dive into that a little bit more and let the folks know how that could help their funeral operation. Jake Johnson: Absolutely. Whether it's the Funeral Results Marketing or Johnson Consulting or a funeral business themselves, the way the world is going, as we all know, people expect to understand what's the price and be very transparent what they get so they can compare, look online, all these things that are going on. Customer service really ends up being to me, that frontier that people can't take away from you. If you're good at it, especially in a funeral business, they'll come back. They're going to come back and we know as funeral businesses, they don't come back too often. We don't want them not coming back the second time in their life to the funeral business and how are we going to do that? Through everything that... It's interesting. I'm going to pause and just talk about what suffers with everything that's going on in the world, where everybody wants to automate things and they want answers quick and they don't want to pay a lot of money for it. They want all the transparency and they want to be able to compare it and they want to look online. To me, the thing that suffers, if you're going to offer all that, 100% is the customer service stats being an issue. Because to me, it's funny, I'm oversimplifying it when I say this, but my brother's restaurant I said, "Wow!" We were talking about a restaurant that really just had bad customer service. I said, "What is that a product of?" He said, "Well, there's just not enough help." "Well, that can't be that hard." And he said, "No, there's just not enough help." I know it's a little more complex at a funeral business, but we all know how hard it is to find people and how busy we are. Rob Heppell: I think too, Jake, especially with the pandemic and having funeral directors in a lot higher demand, when a funeral home is short-staffed and still has the same or higher call volume, that customer service is what gives away. I've heard folks saying that now, sometimes they're dealing with less star ratings because they are short-staffed. Jake Johnson: Right. Well, as a business owner, don't be the one that says, "Well, we just do a better job." How does that resonate with the consumer who assumes that any business that's in business does a good job. And so how are you truly differentiating yourself? There are ways with customer service training that's out there. We do it at Johnson Consulting, but there are others that do it.

Rob shares the back story of how he helped Jeff and Steve Murphy start and grow their online cremation business to a very successful exit. Rob explains 3 marketing strategies that were very important in the growth of the Murphys' business. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey, Rob. Rob Heppell: How's it going? Jake Johnson: Living the dream, as they say, right? Rob Heppell: Yes. Jake Johnson: Every day. Rob Heppell: Good stuff. Jake Johnson: Or fighting the fight. Rob Heppell: Yes. I think you have to do both, to fight the fight, to live the dream, right? Jake Johnson: Well, right, and we all need to know that nightmares are dreams too. You just got to pick your battles. Rob Heppell: Yes, for sure. Hey, today I think what would be neat is to dive into some of the marketing strategies that we've used in Funeral Results Marketing. In particular, how we've used some of those strategies and philosophies in our online cremation offering. I think, to help this example, one of our clients, or actually, unfortunately, former client, but only because he sold his business after it became so successful, is Jeff Murphy from Tennessee. I was speaking with him the other day and I thought, "Hey, you know, do you mind if I share some of the information? We won't go into all the details," but he said, "Oh Yes, Yes. That's fine." I think before we get going though, just so folks listening know some of my approaches to marketing, instead of ... I see this just so often, Jake is, funeral home owner or cremation provider owner will say, "Oh, we should start using Facebook, or we should use this," and they jump to the channel. They don't think of, what's the overall ... If we step back, what's the overall objective? Jake Johnson: I think it's a good point, you know. Yes. I mean, I think about it within our consulting practice. Used to call it the Baskin Robbins concept, where you come back with 31 ideas or flavors of the month. The problem was, it's confusing, it's disruptive and it doesn't accomplish the whole picture. The best thing to do is more strategically plan it out. It falls along the same line with you're talking about. Rob Heppell: Yes. Yes. I like to ask, "Okay, so who do want, to do what? What's it going to benefit you?" It's a little bit of a clunky question, but it has the right part. If someone says, "Well, I want to be on Facebook," I'm like, "Okay. Well, who do you want to interact with and what do you want them to do?" If they say, "Well, how about like our page?" I'm like, "Well, okay. If that's your objective, is to get likes on the page, it may help down the road for a little bit of online reputation and top-of-mind awareness, but there's no value there." On the flip side, I think the ultimate objective for most funeral homes would be to secure another call, to get more first calls. If that's the objective, then okay. So, who are we trying to attract? How are we going to attract them? Then, what do we want them to do? There is a marketer, a guy named Dan Kennedy, kind of a gruff old guy. He's a direct response marketer. They would send out letters and get a response, and they would test. It's part of the scientific side of marketing. He came up with this triangle with arrows going both ways, and he calls it the message to market match. Who's your market and what message are you going to use? What's missing out of that is, just in words only, is what medium or media or channel are you going to use it for? In online cremation arrangements, it would be, we'd be looking at ... The who would be people looking for low-cost cremation. The message would be, "We offer online, low-cost cremation." Then the medium or the channel would be Google AdWords...

Jake and Rob have a fun conversation as they walk back through their introduction and experience with technology. They reminisce about their first computers, first software, initial experience with the Internet, and talk about mobile devices. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell, and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey, Rob. Rob Heppell: How's it going? Jake Johnson: Living the dream. Rob Heppell: Good. Good stuff. Hey, you know what? I've enjoyed our chats here. I know that we've talked about these types of things in the past about just our technologies and how we use them and things like that. I thought it would be fun to share a little geek-out session of our background with technology, the internet, that type of thing. I think our little generation, I'm I think five years older than you or so, but we learned what it was... We grew up not technology and we're fully embraced in it, right? We're one of the rare generations that will have transpired and worked through it into now. It's maybe even controlling. Our lives are very dependent on it. Hey, just right at the beginning, and what I'll do, I'll ask you some questions, you share your thoughts, I'll share my thoughts, and we'll just kind of go through the last two or three decades of technologies. In school, did you take computer classes or typing? Was your school offering that when you're going to high school? Jake Johnson: Yes. I remember components of it like, well, Macintosh Computers in middle school, and I believe the thing that comes to mind is Oregon Trail. Probably everybody remembers that one. That was like the intro to me and I just thought it was the coolest thing. You had it up on the screen, and it was interactive. Games are really where it started for me, I'd say middle school. But in high school, I don't recall computer classes in high school. It's crazy. Rob Heppell: I'll get to a little funny story towards the end about my dad and when we reflected back on computers and high school. I never took it. Some of my buddies took it. They'd all walk around with those little computer cards because they'd have to take that to class, those maybe like seven-inch by three-inch little pieces of cardboard. I never took typing. Those are probably a couple of things that I should have done. One of my buddies at that time, his dad was kind of into electronics, so they had the Apple and with the floppys and we'd go over to his basement and we'd play games. The first computers that I had though, were like an IBM XT or 286 XT or AT. It was big when it was getting into like, okay, there was like a hard drive, but you still had the five and a quarter floppy, and then the three and a half little hard disk still floppy. That was really the first one I started getting into computers was right after grade 12. I think when I was working at McCall's, a great help was Paul Taylor. He was the office manager. He was doing accounting and he brought in a computer. McCall has never had any computers up until 1987, '88. He was instrumental in showing me, like teaching me DOS and things like that, how that all worked. He would help me troubleshoot things or if I messed things up. What about like at home, did you end up getting a computer? Jake Johnson: Yes. My parents had a computer. I always wanted to get one, and it was too expensive or seemed unnecessary for me. I always played with my parents' computer, and it was IBM. I think probably similar to what you're talking about, clone 286, something like that. Then they went to 386, then 486 and then Pentium, and then 486 DX2s with like overclock. It had all these whole series of things, and it was always intriguing to me. On the home computer, again, games were kind of my thing, but learning how to... The five and a quarter.

Lori Salberg, Director of J3Tech Solutions, joins Jake and Rob for the story behind Performance Tracker. Rob asks Jake about the system's origins and Lori shares where Performance Tracker is now and how it can assist Funeral Homes and Cemeteries track and improve the customer experience for their client families. To book a demonstration with Lori, select a time in her calendar that is convenient for you: https://meetings.hubspot.com/lori123 See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell, and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson, and our special guest, Lori Salberg. Hey, Lori. Hey, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey there, what's up? Lori Salberg: Hey. Rob Heppell: Hey, this is going to be exciting. So, today, we're going to be talking about Performance Tracker and its origin. And I think Jake, I'll just start with you, and tell us the backstory about why Performance Tracker was created. Was it named something else in the beginning? How was it started? Who was involved? And what did you use to get going? Jake Johnson: Absolutely. So, my role before coming on to Johnson Consulting was working at Palm Mortuaries, we were a very busy organization, with thousands of calls basically, and a large market share within Las Vegas, Nevada. And one of the things that you did as an arranger, or at least I did, is I would look at what the arrangement scores were. If we're doing surveying, looking at sales averages, and had an impact on how we're compensated, and it's tied to receivables as well. But I always thought that was very valuable. And so, when I moved to Phoenix to work at Johnson Consoling with my father, it just started off as my father and I, he has had two funeral homes here. And they had done surveying, but he had just acquired those funeral homes back. So, they had stopped it, and I wanted to see if I could implement a survey program within our own funeral homes, and see if I could scale it. So, I did. It was a Word document, mail merge. And quickly from there, with the clients that we were starting to build with Johnson Consulting, they had an interest in it. And the same thing, they were acquiring firms that had been used to doing surveying for accountability of the arrangement they have, and total overall performance of the business, or that location. And so, they were interested in starting it up, where they could outsource that. So, we started doing surveys that way. And it wasn't just surveys, those sales analyses as well. Data aggregation, all that kind of stuff. And so, we're doing that in Excel and Microsoft Word. And then, as the volume got too large, quite honestly, and a good problem to have, we gravitated to an Access database. And then, that was short-lived, because we were growing quickly. So, it was my first venture into software development, and having a data aggregation software that we would build that would then be known to be called the Performance Tracker. And so, the origins of that actually were through a gentleman by the name of Bill Bischoff in the industry. He had been around a long time. We're just talking about what does this thing does. And then, we settled on that name. So, it's evolved into what it is today, which we'll get into, but in very humble beginnings, for sure. Rob Heppell: So, it was more than just a survey tool of what, I think, a lot of funeral homes would think of is surveying the families after the service. This would also then look at, or get the information about the arrangements themselves, correct? Jake Johnson: Absolutely. Everybody would say, and they should say that they do surveys at one level or another. But this one takes it to another level with the way it aggregates data, the benchmarking. There are clear metrics that we've identified with why we ask questions on what a high-performing, average-performing,

Rob shares the back story of why he chose WordPress to be the CMS (Content Management System) for all of the funeral home marketing websites and cremation arrangement websites that he and his team have created. He also gives a brief history of WordPress and how its features can help funeral homes create a powerful online marketing tool for their firms. Fact Check: Rob referred to the creator of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg as a billionaire but at the time of the recording, his net worth is estimated at $450 Million and he is from Houston, Texas, not Austin, Texas. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I'm Robin Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. Rob Heppell: Hey, that was a fun little walk down memory lane there about the beginnings of Funeral Results Marketing and where it kind of all started. A number of times we kept talking about WordPress and I think it's a good topic to just dive into a little bit more for folks who haven't heard of WordPress or what it is and how it can be used for funeral homes and cemeteries and cremation providers. Jake Johnson: Yep, I agree. I learned a lot, just things that I... There are things that we discussed that I had known in connection with our relationship and the things that you do, and then I learned a lot about the other things that filled in to make Funeral Results Marketing what it is. Yes, you're right. We talked about WordPress and I've got a little experience in WordPress but I'm pretty sure you've got a lot more. So I'd love to hear you dive into that more. I think it's a valuable topic for people here. Rob Heppell: Sure. Well, yes. Looking back at the last time we chatted, I had got into the funeral home websites early, like in '96 with McCalls. And then in the early 2000s, met up with Todd Abrams from Aldor Solutions in Texas. So I started to really get into how websites were getting developed and that tenure lasted to 2006. And then I took a bit of a break from website development and I reached out to a local marketer guy, his name's Tris Hussey. He was the one that introduced me to WordPress. I said that we had the three options, Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, and he nudged me towards WordPress, and thankfully he did. But it was more of the marketing platform compared to the other two content management systems. Rob Heppell: At that time, I realized that, hey, this is really search engine friendly and Google friendly right out of the box. I thought that it would be a great platform for funeral homes. But at that time, it was still just a blogging platform. It didn't look like a website. And right at that time, there was this little bit of movement of going from a blogging platform to a CMS, a content management system. And really there wasn't anything inside the software of WordPress. It was just how it was applied basically through the themes. I was working with a developer and he introduced me to a couple of theme developers, one guy named Cory Miller from iThemes and Brian Gardner from StudioPress and Genesis. Rob Heppell: These guys are quite well known in the theme development space. I was having conversations, direct conversations with them because I'd be kind of pushing the limits on them like, hey, can't we make it look like a website, can't we create a navigation bar, and working through these little things. So it was kind of neat to be working with these guys. They've gone on to create lots of high-performance WordPress themes, and we'll get into themes in a little bit. And as I mentioned before, my strategy is I don't want to have to learn it but I'd like to be able to connect the dots to funeral service. So if this is out there in the big world and other companies are using it, how does it apply to funeral service? Rob Heppell: What we did,

Rob recalls his first involvement with a funeral home website in 1996, discovering how obituaries could be found by Google and the path he took to create the digital marketing agency, Funeral Results Marketing (and why he chose that name). Then Rob and Jake talk through the suite of services that help funeral professionals be more successful online. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey Jake, how's it going today? Jake Johnson: Hey, Rob. Very good. Rob Heppell: Great. Well, enjoyed the story of Johnson Consulting and after that, we were talking. He said, "Okay. Well, you need to do... You need to give the story behind Funeral Results Marketing," so I think we'll tackle that today. Jake Johnson: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, it goes without saying. How did you start to offer websites and other marketing services? Give me a little more background on that. Rob Heppell: Yes, for sure. So I'll give you a little bit of the early part and then will get into Funeral Results. So I started with McCalls in Victoria in '86 right out of high school as a funeral director, and then lots of things go in 10-year chunks. So in 1996, I helped McCalls with their first website, and then for myself, I thought, "Oh, you know what? I should get heppell.com," and I got it and get this, Jake, this is from Network Solutions and it was $20, and I guess that was too much money. They felt that they were charging too much, so they actually sent me a t-shirt, and I'll take a picture of it and I'll put it in the show notes because it's quite funny. It's not looking too great, but it was good quality. It's nice and thick. Rob Heppell: So as things progressed, in 2002 I met Todd Abrams and the unique thing about Todd is his family's funeral home is the one directly north of my uncle and grandfather's funeral home in Ontario. So there's Bolton, which was Egan's, and then if you drive north, the next one was Abram's Funeral Home in Tottenham, and I ran into Todd at a trade show. It was an FSAC in Whistler, and we got talking and I'm like, "Hey, I think your name sounds familiar," and here he is, he's this tech guy from Texas. Yes, he didn't stay with the funeral, got into technology, started websites, and so I started working for him, representing his company through Canada and they became Aldor Solutions and FDMS, and FDMS is a very familiar company to both you and me, and continue to work with them. Rob Heppell: So it's just funny how these things start and how they continue to circle back and continue to be part of the story. I went back to school, to university, got my business degree in entrepreneur management, took marketing courses, and this would've been early 2000s, and 2006 I created a website for myself off of WordPress, and I noticed that it was quite easy to use compared to... I played around with HTML and it was starting to get over my head, and WordPress made it a lot easier, and at this time, I'd left Aldor Solutions. I was doing more SEO and offering those services plus different training. Being in Victoria, our cremation rate when I started in '86 was 67%, and I believe in the mid-2000s, it was around 88%, and now it's 93%. So we were kind of always on the verge of something new, everyone else had... And Victoria to this day still probably has one of the highest cremation rates in all of North America to 93%, but it's been steady at that rate for about five years. Jake Johnson: Yes, it makes you wonder, something like that, like just where the cremation rate ends up across the US. Of course, we're all wondering what that answer's going to be as we head towards it. I don't know. I was just thinking about that when you said that. Rob Heppell: Yes. I think there's going to be certain number of people,

Jake recounts when his dad, Tom started Johnson Consulting Group, Jake's introduction into the company and what he and the team at JCG have grown it into. Jake also shares the background and significance of the firm's logo. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I'm Robin Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey Jake, are you there? Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. Thank you. Yes. Rob Heppell: We had a couple of great conversations about working together this past year with Funeral Results Marketing, and then, even our business working relationship, going back over a decade. But today, I think Funeral Results Marketing is just one of the enterprises for the Johnson Group of Businesses that you have. So, but let's talk about kind of the main one, the one that got you where you are now. And that's Johnson Consulting. Maybe just share how it started or even what your dad was doing before he started Johnson Consulting and then you joining it and then where you're today? Jake Johnson: It was a fun journey because it was for me as a child because we would move and dad had a new greater opportunity as he elevated his career. We are from Batesville, Indiana. So I think if you come out of Batesville, Indiana, you either make hospital beds. You make caskets and sell them or you work at funeral homes. And so dad actually started with Batesville Caskets, started the national accounts program and then gravitated into the funeral operations side of things. And that eventually led him to being the president of The Pierce Brothers Mortuaries and Cemeteries out in California, which was one of the largest private funeral organizations back in the day in California. And then from there gained the experience on acquisitions and started his own acquisition company in the early '90s and then was sold in the mid '90s and he retired. And with all that, he gained a lot of experience and my father, always just had a large network of people he knows through choosing the right thing, and the right way to handle things above everything else and reputation, and that went a long way for him. And so when it became known that he was retired and playing golf, he started getting calls and people asking him based on his experience of buying and selling or running funeral businesses know any guidance he could give. And as those calls started to grow, he decided maybe one way to slow it down. So get back to golf was start... legitimize it through charging because he wasn't charging at the time. And that only propagated further phone calls because they saw now that he was in business. And so he incorporated in 2000 Johnson Consulting as a Florida Corporation, which it still is. And then as it continued to grow in 2004, he reached out to me when I was at Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries, I was running a large funeral home there and then ran all their cemeteries, operations side and was on their executive team. And so I was getting a lot of boots on the ground experience. Although my prior experience was in mergers and acquisitions and funeral service at Keystone Group Holdings down in Tampa, Florida. So it was a great way to culminate my experiences and come on board, if you will, at definitely the ground level. It was just dad and I working and working out of our homes and I was in Las Vegas and he was in Florida at the time. And dad got the opportunity to buy three funeral homes, one in Gainesville, Indiana, where he is from and still lives and two here in Phoenix, Arizona. And so he made the decision to move out to Arizona. My brother was here and just kind of consolidated the family if you will. And Johnson Consulting had their first office, which was in a small building that I think at the time was held up by the termites in it next to one of our funeral homes. And we put our signage up and started things out.

Jake shares his valuable insights into funeral home mergers and acquisitions - and the higher-than-normal multiples that are being offered for the right funeral homes. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X podcast. I am Rob Heppell, and I'm joined by my Funeral Results business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey, Jake, how are you today? Jake Johnson: Hey, Rob. Good. Rob Heppell: Hey, Jake, it's been good kind of going back. We've been telling the folks some of the background of our businesses and how we've come together to work together, but I'd like to kind of interject a topic that is quite timely right now with mergers and acquisitions. I know there are lots of things going on and who better to talk to than you about that. So maybe give just a very brief background of the experience between your dad and then yourself, and then maybe talk about today's climate. Jake Johnson: Yes, absolutely. It started with M&A experience within my family started with my father back in at Pierce Brothers when they expanded Pierce Brothers, and then on to when my dad started his own acquisition company and spun that up and then sold and retired, but he gained a lot of experience in multistate funeral business ownership and acquisition analysis and multiples and things like that. And then for me, I followed in those footsteps and started in Tampa, Florida at Keystone Group and then got some boots on the ground experience but always with the finance and accounting background and interest. So then that's what we brought to Johnson Consulting, and why we're very popular as an M&A broker company in the funeral space. Rob Heppell: Great. Now let's maybe talk about what's happening right now because there has been some activity, quite a bit of activity lately. And then maybe then go through a little bit of what would you recommend for people who are thinking about maybe putting their funeral property on the market even though it may not be immediate. What are the things to kind of get ready for to make it as successful as possible? Jake Johnson: Absolutely. And the first thing is that most feel like it's on the market if you will quote that it's all for all to see, but in this space, it's confidentiality. And privacy is very important because it can be very disruptive. And in this industry, profession has small ears or big ears and everybody hears about things. So the things to prepare for though, I'll start off with just what we're seeing. It's definitely since... Let's see. They had done it since the '80s and then me since the mid-'90s. These multiples are as high as I've seen since maybe the late '90s in funeral service. So I think what's driving that is you got high call volume. It's a transition time for small businesses with the next generation, the baby boomers looking to retirement. And then also the baby boomers, ironically, being also being part of that cycle of people passing that's possibly a good cause of what the added case volume is, along with COVID, of course. Rob Heppell: So, Jake, you're telling me that... Because I know that we've been hearing this for 10, 15 years about like the big death boom. The stories that were told to me were that some people predicted it way too early. But you're saying now that we are finally here. We're starting to see a little bit of that swell. Jake Johnson: Yes. We know it was coming, and I think we're seeing a beginning of that swell. I don't know how sustainable it is, but right now, it doesn't seem to be slowing down. And they'd probably be... I've heard people speak of two waves of it, I think. This could be the beginning of the first wave of it. I don't know, but there's no doubt businesses are up. They're busy. There are COVID-related cases but that busyness has... Here's what it's done to the value of businesses. You've got high call volume years. It's hard to find staff. We all know that.

Jake and Rob reflect on how they were first made aware of each other in the mid 2000s - Tom Johnson and Google. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake, how are you today? Jake Johnson: Hey there. Good. Rob Heppell: Good stuff. Hey, that was a great first episode, just reliving the last 18 months of our journey working quite closely to get other more so. But I think I thought in this one and we did talk about it a little bit, but I think there's some great stories about how we first got to know each other, and also too, from our different perspectives too. And basically, what's happened in the last, I guess, 15 years or so of getting to know each other and kind of bringing us up to the point of working with each other a year ago, starting a year ago. Jake Johnson: Right. Rob Heppell: So now to jump right in, I think this... I knew of you and your dad back there in say the mid 2000s. And I was in San Francisco, so this is 2006 and I had been writing some articles for... At that time I was just trying to get exposure. So I was writing some articles for RON HAST. And so Ron used to have the mortuary management magazine and he was hosting a little conference and this still happens today, but there was the CANA event going on in San Francisco so that it's in the summer. And so he decided and since he's from San Francisco to have his own two-day event ahead of that to kind of capitalize on all the funeral folks coming into town. And he had Tom Johnson speaking at this event. Rob Heppell: So I wasn't speaking, I was just attending. But I did have a couple of other goals by attending this event. And then I was actually speaking at CANA a few days later. But what I remember is your dad's at the front of the little conference room that we were at, we're at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, I believe in San Francisco. And so Yes, your dad is presenting and he's having technical issues and everyone, he's looking at Ron and Ron was older than your dad. And so he didn't have the answer so I kind of volunteered. And this has happened. It doesn't happen as much anymore. I think it's because technology's a bit more reliable than it was. So I came up and got him figured out and got on his way. Rob Heppell: And I still... And I remember part of his presentation and I've spoken with you since about this, but where he was talking, and Jake's, were with our business evaluation and he's it's not just simple math and so many calls these times. So many dollars is what we're going to pay you for your business. And he was talking about your little upticks here and there. And since that time, you've shown me to the degree of these things that are just minor, but they can sway evaluation up or down. But it's just kind of neat and I've always remembered that part. And with that, the neat thing about that event was Ron, he had a social time up top of the Drake and he... And I met some folks there. Rob Heppell: I met Mark Matthews and Sean Douglass. And then also then when that wrapped up, right before I left, I interviewed Ron because I was doing my little Funeral Gurus video. And so I interviewed him about Jessica Mitford because Jessica Mitford wrote The American Way of Death, kind of a negative take on funeral service. And so I just wanted to get his take on it because I knew that, and this is kind of a funny thing I said, now Ron, I do know that you had a bit of a relationship with Jessica Mitford. And he said, Rob, I wouldn't call it a relationship the way you're calling it. But he just kind of joked about that. And he went in and went into the detail about how he instead of pushing her away, he gave her a bit of a voice. Rob Heppell: And I think the funeral service overall we're becoming more aware of how other people think than jus...

Jake and Rob look back at the events over the past two years that brought them to become partners in Funeral Results Marketing and where they are today. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Robin Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing partner, Jake Johnson. Hey, Jake, are you there? Jake Johnson: Hey, Rob, nice to be here. Rob Heppell: Yes, excellent. Now, for everyone listening, for a little bit of a background, Jake and I have been partners for just over a year with Funeral Results Marketing where we meet on a regular basis. And we have some great discussions about funeral service and what led us to this point. And we thought that others may want to listen, too, on some of our discussions and so we're going to provide this on somewhat of a regular basis. And hopefully, if you're listening that you get some insight out of it and where we are, and where we're going.                 So Jake, I think a great first topic, let's talk about you and I and how we got here today. Not since the beginning, not over a decade ago, but maybe in the last year and a half how we got the conversation started to working together, what are your thoughts? Jake Johnson: Well, you and I, Rob, have been known each other and talked for quite some time. I think dad initially ran into you when he was having audio/visual issues at a presentation back in the day. And he said, "You got to meet this guy," and you and I spoke. And you then helped us with our website and online presence. That was the big reveal for me, like, "Who is this guy?" We claimed to be the premier consulting firm back then as we were growing and you were ranking higher than us. I'm like, "Well this guy has got it figured out."                 So, I've always seen you, Rob, as that, I always say OG, but the guy that really saw what the future would look like with websites and online marketing. And that's proven true with the platform that you build on. It's still here and others have, quite frankly, attempted to switch to because of how long and how robust the system is. So yes, that was the beginning of it as I can recall. Rob Heppell: Yes, that's great. And I think maybe in a future episode we'll dive in deeper to that part because there's some good parts in there. But I think what I remember, and this would have been, ironically, at the time of the beginning of the pandemic. So the spring of 2020 and nothing to do with the pandemic itself but just, I think, that the timing's align. I was approached, there was some consolidation going on in the funeral service technology website space. And I had received some phone calls and interest in that and if I wanted to participate in it. And some of it sounded interesting, some of it, I didn't really latch on to what they were trying to offer or where they might be going.                 And what I like to do, I always like to listen. I learned that from one of our clients, was always listen, always hear someone out. But then also, too, maybe talk it over with someone else just to make sure I'm not missing anything. So I remember I picked up the phone and called you Jake and let you know what was going on. And what were your thoughts at that time of what you had heard about what was happening, and where was your mindset going regarding websites and marketing from that point? Jake Johnson: Yes, for me, I've been interested in technology in this space as far as back in 1996 when I started. I've always been into it. And so, as it's advanced and those opportunities just to continue to grow and grow within our space, being behind with a lot of the different things that you see is very common in other markets or other business segments. And so, seeing the consolidation that was starting to occur seemed natural. It seemed like something that you might have seen years before, but albeit it started happening and it really j...