On April 28th I had the pleasure of joining CANA, my Foundation Partners colleagues and two of our partners in an incredibly informative webinar entitled, Meeting Families Where They Are: How to Leverage Cremation Trends to Your Advantage. I was very impressed with the practical and actionable advice and solid tips shared by our presenters.

What I also found interesting was the wide range of cremation experience among the more than 220 CANA members who registered for the event. Nearly 20 percent of registrants are relatively new to the cremation space, with cremation representing less than 25 percent of their current business, while another 18 percent are fully invested in cremation services, which make up more than 85 percent of their business.
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Wherever they fall on the cremation business spectrum, they received valuable takeaways that will help them fine-tune and advance their businesses. And the good news is you can too by viewing a recording of the webinar here. First, however, I wanted to share a few highlights of the session and my take on the lessons learned.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tom’s assessment, which is supported by research showing that ancillary product and service offerings for cremation families represent a massive opportunity for funeral home owners.

The findings he shared about environmental concerns also resonated with me. As managers and owners of funeral service businesses, we need to be keenly aware of this environmental trend and look for ways to weave environmental responsibility into the fabric of our operations. Funeral home owners who recognize and stay ahead of the growing environmental movement will be well-positioned for success.

That’s why we were proud to announce that all cremations across Foundation Partners locations will be carbon neutral this year, thanks to a new carbon offset program we implemented through Terrapass to support projects across North America that reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

We all know that the pandemic has accelerated the flight to online shopping but educating families and selling funeral services online requires a new mindset and a new approach. Angelique Simpson, professional development director for Matthews Aurora Funeral Solutions, offered tips to prepare your teams for the changing demands and expectations of today’s families, and illustrated how your average revenue per contract has the potential to increase when you have an effective online portal. Her advice ranged from why it’s imperative that your staff be knowledgeable in every aspect of your online offering, to making sure that your online platform enlists large clear photo images of all of the best products and services you have to offer.

According to Angelique, the key to successfully advancing your business is investing in your team with professional development. Making the shift from face-to-face family meetings to online chat and telephone communications requires training.

Our own, Foundation Partners experience bears this out. Like most of you, pandemic lock-downs required our teams to make pre-need and at-need arrangements over the phone or online. And state and local restrictions that limited gatherings prompted us to reassess our tools for remote attendance. Updating our e-commerce capabilities and bringing on new remote attendance systems required an efficient operational plan and a huge training effort that reached each of our 160 locations across the country.

At Foundation Partners, we take a three-step approach to rolling out new tools and procedures in our funeral homes: Pilot, Listen and Adapt.

Pilot – We identify offerings that are resonating in the market and test them in select locations. We partner with vendors and have them educate our teams to test new items. And then we incentivize our teams to offer these new products and services to families.

Listen – We ask our funeral home team members for feedback as they present different options to families. What’s working? And what’s not working?

Adapt – As we learn what is and is not resonating with our families, we adapt to meet their needs.

This is something you can do within your locations, regardless of the size of your business.

If you’re thinking about succession planning, now is the perfect time to arrange a complementary, confidential financial analysis with Foundation Partners Group. Click here to request a call or call Jason Widing, our vice president of business development at (503) 200-0605

Everyone is tired of hearing the phrase “These are unprecedented times,” but a worldwide pandemic that has affected our profession and our lives as much as this one has is truly unprecedented. As a result, this makes for a very difficult time, both physically and emotionally.

We all rose to the call—and still are. Some in different ways and some with different needs. And we are coming out better on the other side. As we often hear, “The more difficult the situation, the higher the reward.” I truly believe we will be better funeral directors and better cemeterians and better cremationists as a result of this pandemic. This was very much a positive learning experience for us all. As an industry, we pushed to new levels and encountered unchartered territory.

During all of this, the creativity and resourcefulness of those in our profession does not surprise me. It is our job to respond to families on a daily basis, to listen to them carefully and explore effective ways to serve their needs while protecting everyone’s safety.

But we can’t do it alone. We rely on the collaboration and generosity of our colleagues and the stamina and ingenuity of our staff. Professional associations play an important role, too. It is CANA and it is organizations like CANA—be they national, state, provincial, or local—that have been tremendously resourceful on behalf of funeral directors and cremationists. In a crisis such as this, we are so busy in the field that we often do not have the time, the energy, or the means to educate ourselves and our staff with the most current information. We benefit from expert guidance to learn how to properly protect ourselves. It’s really helpful to hear what professionals advise and what other colleagues are doing to cope.

One year in, we asked some industry leaders to share their reflections and pass along what they’ve learned during the past year. I’ve added my own story from Texas as well. Knowing how busy everyone is, we’re grateful for these responses and send our support to everyone as we all continue to meet the challenges of this pandemic.

Reflecting on the past twelve months, it is hard to find the right words to describe it. “Unprecedented” has been used, if not overused, but still, to me, feels like the one word that most accurately describes what has occurred.

I still vividly recall the first day COVID impacted funeral service in New York. It was the afternoon of March 12, 2020 and we had just finished the Association’s quarterly board meeting when we learned about the first gathering limits. That moment until mid-summer was a blur. Due to the rapid spread of COVID and increasingly high death toll, especially in downstate New York, we had months filled with constant changes and stresses on the death care system never before seen. And, in turn, we supported our members in ways we never had before.

The most impactful and important role we played (according to our members) was as a communicator. We sent out at least daily emails with updates, created a COVID resource page, hosted weekly webinars and served as an advocate with state and local government to ensure our members had the resources they needed to meet their role as public health officials and so they remained able to serve families in their time of need. We also became the chief spokesperson for funeral service, with local to international media conducting TV and radio interviews as well as speaking with countless reporters for printed stories.

We (both the NYSFDA and our funeral directors) quickly became experts in the use of technology. Platforms like Zoom and Skype became essential for communicating with our members and for our funeral directors to communicate and work with families. The pandemic also accelerated the use of technology with our state and local government agencies that support death care. Paper heavy processes like completing death certificates and issuing burial permits pivoted to electronic means within days.

Many of the changes we adapted to in the spring and summer of 2020 remain in place. The use of technology to conduct business is a change we expect will become permanent which will, in the long run, help both the association serve our members and the funeral directors run their business and serve families. Others, like the restrictions on gatherings have certainly taken a toll on those who have lost a loved one and the funeral directors who take such great pride in being the experts in helping families through the first stages of grief. Seeing those restrictions phased out will be a welcome sight.

So, as we navigate through what we hope are the final stages of the pandemic and return to some sense of normalcy, we remain steadfast in our efforts to support our members so they can continue to fulfill their vital role. We are also thankful and so very appreciative for the sacrifices they made, risks they took and endless compassion they displayed throughout the past year.

2020 will forever be the year that lives in infamy for many if not all of us. When I think back to the last twelve months, the words fear, vulnerable, confusion, chaos, stress, disruptive, and game-changing all come to my mind.

It was late January 2020 when we learnt about the first case of COVID 19 in our state. I did not think much of it and was not concerned about its impact in our community. After all, we have had other viruses and I was certain it would be contained. Was I ever wrong! I began to realize the magnitude when the stay-at-home order was issued by our governor.

What did this all mean for our profession? That ugly word nobody wants to talk about (death) was everywhere. People were dying. Italy and New York stood out. It was early March that my world began to be impacted. It started with us having to cancel two of the three regional mini conferences scheduled for the WCCFA association members. It turned out to be the first of many decisions I had to make as a leader this past year that required courage and being firm in doing what it is right even though people would be and were upset. This was the beginning of a long hard journey that continues to this day.

No funerals? Immediate family only funerals? These were the ever-changing directives from our governor’s office with not much clarity to each definition. Chaos, confusion, anger, and tears—this was everyone’s (ours and our families) response. How does one tell a grieving attendee who unexpectedly showed up that we are over capacity? This was and is still our reality. Funeral directors had to be explicit in our directions and communications. We had to move into a pro-active mode of communication by emailing guidelines to families and having families sign a document that spells out the guidelines and agree that they understood we were required to enforce them.

The biggest challenge for us was how to do our job with all these restrictions and social distancing requirements. Building rapport with families has always been drilled into me my entire profession. How do we build this rapport when we cannot hug, touch, or even see our families? How do we let them know we still care and their loved one is safe remotely?

We already had Livestreaming and the ability for families to do online arrangement conferences and electronic documents. The challenge was for our staff to effectively use them so the level of service would not be impacted. The telephone has always been an important tool for us, but now our livelihood depends on it. Our words have to be clear, concise and demonstrate empathy, compassion, and trust. This requires training.

With a lot of restrictions at all facilities where people passed, we realized we had an opportunity to give families a chance to say goodbye. Emails were sent to all our local nursing homes, hospitals, and other gate keepers letting them know we do allow people to see their loved ones. This past year, we have seen a huge increase in “identification” view and viewings in general. I realized we do not place enough value in this for our families. We are now working on educating our community on this.

A year later, we are hopeful with the vaccines that soon we will see things resume to normalcy. In our state, it does not seem immediate. My mindset has shifted from temporary crisis management and doing the best we can to how we plan and build the future and permanency of our business amidst this pandemic and recovery years.

2020 was a curse but a gift as well. A gift in helping me realize that we can serve families in different ways and still do it effectively. Embracing technology and e-commerce is so important. Understanding the most important asset in our organization is our staff. These were individuals whose personal lives were crumbling all around with them with schools being shut down, family members being sick or dying and still choosing to show up every day to care for others. Most importantly, when faced with a problem, we must tap into our creative sides to come up with a solution that is still legal, ethical, and moral.

Personally, I grew as a person and as a leader. I was afraid of getting sick of COVID and potentially dying from it before my children turned 18. I was afraid to get the vaccine when it became available to us. As a matter of fact, I canceled my initial appointment. On January 14th, I finally received my first dose of the vaccine. I am still fearful of what might come of it. Fear is a powerful motivator; I choose to feel it and push through it. My words for 2021 are hope and trust!

When I became Executive Director of WSFDA in 2018, the board and I worked to find solutions that met the needs of our members and leadership across the state while relocating the office to Spokane. Our Member Talks YouTube series, now also a podcast, and Zoom meant that we could talk to our members and each other without a five-hour commute. Little did we know how valuable these solutions would be a year later.

I can break the last year in thirds, each a major hurdle we had to meet for our members. The first was PPE. As the first epicenter of the pandemic, Washington was unable to prepare for the PPE shortage. We joined the state’s Emergency Operations Command to source PPE, but funeral directors were constantly shifting from the front of the line for supplies to the very back. We had to combat their belief that we were “simply picking up bags” from the coroner and educate these colleagues on what our job is really like.

The next hurdle was gathering restrictions. In a matter of days, funerals were limited to 50 people, to 20, to none at all. Meanwhile, I was in constant communication with the state and local departments of health tracking these orders to make sure we were in compliance. The problem was that the people we had worked with for resolving the PPE issue had been moved or transferred to different departments.  When the PPE task force dissolved, we had to build all new relationships within the State – every conversation was rebuilding channels of information to get answers.

It was a crazy year, juggling each crisis, and sometimes all three at the same time. Now, we’re dealing with the third hurdle—vaccine access—and figuring out if mortuary workers are listed in 1a, 2b, or even on the Vaccine distribution list at all. Each government agency we spoke with provided us with a different answer. Officially, Mortuary Workers are listed in a Phase 2b category by the Dept. of Health. However, many counties in Washington have begun Offering vaccines to mortuary workers. Now, I hope that the goal of 40,000-vaccines-a-day by April works.

As a profession, I hope we can take what we’ve learned as use it moving forward. The first being the tech options to meet remotely, the second the value of PPE and universal precautions. I want to get back to where we were or back to something new. As for my third year as Executive Director of WSFDA, I don’t know what it will bring, but I’m looking forward to it.

Who would have thought that we would STILL, one year later, be locked down, wearing masks, not visiting our friends and family outside of our bubble (or feeling guilty about cheating), and all the other calamity that has left so much in shambles? The vaccine is finally here but what a struggle to get vaccinated in some places.

How does funeral service NOT qualify for the first round? I do not know about you, but I have never been so jaded concerning something so critical ever in my life. Safely jaded of course. I wear a mask, stay 6 feet away, and use curbside pickup (that will hopefully never go away), but I refuse to let this thing get me down. Although I do not travel with anywhere near the frequency that I did before March 2020, I am not afraid to get on an airplane. I was home from March 12 through September 28, but I have, since then, taken two business trips and am currently on a plane to my “warm office” in Central America for the second time. What is my point here? When you are going through hell, just keep going!

Early on, especially in the New York City area, the number of deaths and cremations were overloading the capacity of the city’s crematories. My first thought was “be careful you don’t overuse and abuse these units, or they will break down and you will be in even deeper trouble!” The States of New York and New Jersey even waived emission restrictions allowing crematoria to operate virtually non-stop to keep up, and now many areas of California are doing the same.

When anyone asked me what the most important thing to consider regarding crematory operations during the pandemic, this is what I preached: a balance of customer service and safe, efficient operations. As hard as it is to be the cause of a delay in returning a loved one to their family, returning the wrong person because you were rushing is far worse. For the most part people understand. Sadly, the media has chosen to highlight the worst of funeral service during this time, not the best.

The massive majority of deathcare professionals go above the call of duty to serve, finding ways to provide service within the parameters of the current regulations, embracing technology with open arms, making adjustment after adjustment to our already deep set-in procedures and processes, and more. This is not easy and can become very tiresome—even debilitating. I can honestly say I am even sick of hearing about self-care and all that goes along with that, but we cannot let up yet. We still have a way to go and we cannot become complacent.

One positive aspect of this pandemic is that people are realizing that mourning their dead is important, necessary, and valuable. And we need funeral service professionals to lead the way. So, what is the answer to getting through this? Keep going!

I’ve had the great honor to be a part of and preside over many deathcare organizations, including the Texas Funeral Directors Association (TFDA). As chairperson for the TFDA Texas Disaster Response Team, I and my team have been dispatched to assist with a lot of different types of missions. But the COVID-19 response in the summer was very different. We quickly saw that the plans we had in place—the training that we had for mass fatalities and weather-related search and rescues—were not the plans we needed for a pandemic.

In other types of missions, we generally know the number of decedents in advance, but COVID-19 was different. We had a large number of decedents to deal with immediately, in coordination with funeral homes, crematories, and cemeteries in the region who were all overwhelmed and past capacity. We had to establish long-term, secure holding facilities to hold the decedents still coming in.

Our team worked long hours, and after the adrenaline wore off, the stress set in. The deathcare workers, healthcare workers, and local municipalities were stretched beyond measure. We saw funeral homes unable to do business because of staff shortage due to COVID-19. This was difficult for all of us involved.

For you as a funeral professional and a cremationist, being prepared will certainly put you in a less stressful situation when and if the need arises in your area. First and foremost, you need to ensure that you and your team are safe and healthy. There are not a lot of people in your community who do what you do. If you and your staff members contract this virus it can potentially force you to shut your business down and, even worse, lead to serious long-term medical complications.

I know I have faced this firsthand, as I’m sure many of you have, with staff members that are out on quarantine. Prepare yourself and your staff to minimize exposure to surviving family members. Make sure you’re fully staffed, prepare your staff for long hours and also prepare for another weak link in this system: transportation. If you’re a crematory owner, make sure your equipment is in good working condition and ready for extreme use.

Secondly, it is important to prepare for increased cold storage capacity. This has been the number one issue on every mission that our team has been a part of. This may become the biggest obstacle to overcome as your community encounters large numbers of COVID-related death.

Lastly, remember that you have colleagues willing to help. During this crisis I saw competitors that were normally probably not the closest of friends coming together to help each other for the common good. Almost all state and provincial associations have resources available to help you. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Preparation today will lessen some of the stress down the road. Remember to take care of yourself through these difficult and changing times. There is no silver bullet to make this easy. We’ve all struggled with long hours, subbing with team members so we can get rest. Being organized and trying to prepare is the best way to get through this and prevent burnout.

Months ago, pre-pandemic, when crowds were still gathering, I was invited to be a keynote speaker at a funeral service conference. I taped my speech ahead of time, and when I stepped up to the stage, I ran the video instead of speaking in person. WHY would he do that? many attendees, perhaps rightfully, wondered.

My point was that the digital world is HERE—and it should be embraced and used to its fullest capacity. But puzzled attendees didn’t quite understand…until the next day, when the scheduled speaker missed her flight, leaving a gaping hole in the program. Quite simply, no one had prepared with a digital back-up plan.

I think my delivery proved a prime example of what practitioners in the death care industry needed to see. While you may not see the need for digital transformation now, if you don’t make the shift soon, the effects could prove too little, too late.

When the pandemic hit, for most in the early first quarter of 2020, everybody—from teachers and students to libraries to restaurants—was forced to deliver goods and/or services in the digital world. Zoom became a permanent adjective, noun and verb in our lexicon.

But while some funeral directors played catch-up, others were better positioned to jump in head first and, hopefully, make solid gains for their funeral homes. Who are these prescient funeral directors? They’re the early adopters, perhaps those who were using digital register books when they first came out. Or those who began offering and broadcasting online services when families could no longer safely gather during the pandemic.

Those changes didn’t always come easy or without some hesitation. Whatever digital experience funeral directors offered families in the past, the traditionalists were not necessarily encouraging or didn’t have the technology to meet the digital divide.

But, as we now know, a digital/virtual paradigm is no longer a “nice to have” option. It’s a “need to have” for funeral homes hoping to come out of COVID conundrums at the top of their game.

Before the global pandemic, the goal of most funeral directors was to engage directly. A family would come in, sit with the funeral director, share stories of their loved one and, of course, then have to make grief-heavy decisions about purchasing caskets, urns, flowers and other “value added” items. And even though the death care professionals don’t like to think of it as “selling,” clearly the best way to offer alternatives to the families has been in person.

That model is changing. And not just due to the global pandemic, although that has speeded things up.

It may seem challenging to get the same feeling of empathy virtually, but consider death care’s changing audience. Today’s consumers don’t always need, want or welcome that level of engagement.

Millennials and other younger generations don’t use outmoded means to find your services—they use mobile devices and social networks. So, in addition to having an engaging and useful website—full of active links and pertinent, updated information, that makes having a social media presence (one that is updated often) essential.

Today’s customers are comfortable, and used to, buying important and big-ticket items like mattresses, cars, life insurance and vacations with the click of the mouse, so, too, are they more willing to plan funerals, buy products and services and engage more virtually. For example, in my informal talks with younger consumers (many digital natives), more than 90 percent of the people I spoke with said they didn’t enjoy visiting a funeral home at time of need.

Aside from the new consumers’ shift toward more digital engagement, they are also a more mobile generation and perhaps less tied to religious or cultural traditions. That, too, influences their purchasing needs and wants.

So, is it possible to create a seamless, effective digital engagement model for funeral directors? Of course, but there will, understandably, be a learning curve, as well as securing corporate/staff buy-in and choosing the right products. Integrated operational software like byondpro incorporates many functions to make the transition easier.

Workflows and records management functions will help funeral homes get their behind-the-scenes data in more usable forms. And sales and booking functions provide everything for the entire customer journey—planning a service, preparing quotes, booking services, managing suppliers, generating invoices and taking payments. Couldn’t be simpler. Or more necessary.

Even if you haven’t been an early adopter, it’s not too late, but it is too necessary.

If the death care industry has learned anything through all of the trials of 2020, it’s that business will likely not go back to the way it was. Just like TV didn’t kill radio, funeral directors will just have more means of communication at their disposal.

Recognize this: a digital transformation would have happened over time anyway. Maybe it took a pandemic—tragic as it is—to get the industry to change its point of view…and its way of doing business.

We are all virtual now. In addition to conducting virtual funerals and celebrations of life, you may find yourself attending birthday parties or toasting at Happy Hours online. The global pandemic and local gathering rules have forced us all to plan events within new limitations and with a whole new set of considerations.

CANA followed suit by converting our 102nd Annual Cremation Innovation Convention to a virtual event. It turned out well, but it involved a lot of careful planning. Once our leaders and staff decided to go virtual, we found we had a short four months to make a lot of decisions.

CANA’s may have been the profession’s first virtual convention, but it won’t be the last. Below I’ve shared some thoughts about our process and the lessons we learned. I hope it helps you as you plan your own events—whether it’s taking your next graveside service online or gathering family and friends for a virtual game night.

As a longtime devoted fan of Simon Sinek, I looked to his recommendations for guidance on moving forward with a virtual meeting. In both his viral TED Talk and subsequent book, Start with Why, Sinek encourages us to look at what we do (hold an Annual Convention) and examine the heart of it (why do we hold it?).

CANA started our planning process by posing the difficult question “Why should we have a virtual convention?” Other associations within the profession and around the world had cancelled their events, so why should CANA move forward? The immediate answer to the why question was, essentially, why not? We had four months to plan and a compelling desire to re-envision our 102nd annual event to a virtual platform, so we met the challenge. We are an association known for a progressive response to disruptions, so our leadership and staff were eager to uphold that reputation.

Closely related to WHY is HOW – how will we be able to successfully translate the CANA convention experience to a virtual platform? An in-person CANA convention takes place in one large room. Everyone is in that room together, meaning attendees and exhibitors are learning, eating, drinking and networking seamlessly throughout the event. A virtual platform supports the same integration, also bringing everyone together into one space—an easy adaptation.

We had already established a strong virtual link to the cremation and death care professionals. From the beginning of the pandemic, CANA has convened its members to share information, hear from experts and formulate solutions together. Networking and education have never been more closely linked. So for us, a final WHY to hold the virtual convention was our charge to advance CANA’s mission and serve members and the broader profession.

Having identified WHY a virtual convention has value, we identified three key elements to its success:

This list is absolutely in priority order. By August 2020, many of us were craving connection, even if it was only available via a screen. Networking was the top priority, as it is with in-person conventions, so we sought a platform that supported networking in multiple ways.

While the CANA Convention prioritized networking over other elements, every event is different. It is incumbent on the host to identify and market the event’s value proposition – jargon for the WHY. Your event may prioritize education, community engagement or gathering together. Once you know that, you can then market the event and attract key audiences. However, just as with in-person events, you’d better be able to deliver what you promise.

Below are some of the questions we posed that informed our planning, our decision-making—and even our marketing—with our answers.

One important lesson we learned is that very few attendees planned to completely pull themselves away from the office or work during the convention time. Of course, because the rituals of packing and flying or driving to the convention and the respite of a hotel stay  were not a factor, I am not sure it would have occurred to me to stay away from work either. I came home from the CANA office and slept in my bed at the end of each day.

The etiquette of an in-person event is familiar. Advance preparation is helpful, but an attendee or exhibitor can grab a program at the registration desk and make snap decisions about how to plan their experience without much of a learning curve. We know what to do, and we can take cues from the other people in the event.

A virtual event has a steeper learning curve. There are layers of technology to navigate just to conduct a group chat, or simply to identify who is currently available on the platform. For our Convention, the platform required a computer (not a tablet or phone) in order to get the optimal networking experience. So even if attendees and exhibitors were able to run their business on the go, they couldn’t get the full convention experience from a phone or tablet. Since CANA members do not spend large portions of their day in front of computers, many struggled with internet access or finding a compatible browser. Many discovered that they didn’t have an accessible camera on their computer.

We could not have predicted these challenges, but we created and offered a lot of advance education and technical support to help attendees and exhibitors understand and use the specific platform tools. We did this on YouTube with walkthroughs, emails with images and instructions, and on this very blog. And it was effective! Most of the attendees planned ahead and knew how to use the platform and therefore learned quickly.

Unfortunately, many of the exhibitor staff who set up the booths and attended the CANA training were not the same people who staffed the actual booth during the Convention. 90% of technical support questions came from exhibitors on Day One of the event.

Many registrants apologized in the post-event evaluation survey, explaining that they successfully attended the education sessions, but were pulled away afterward to serve families and help staff and thus were unable to follow up and network with their colleagues. That split attention had another consequence—no break from their regular duties. This is especially unfortunate at a time when our profession is working so hard, possibly harder than ever before. A Convention provides that intangible benefit—getting away to spend time with CANA friends and getting the opportunity to play as hard as you work. That may seem inappropriate during a global pandemic, but it is important for our physical and mental well-being.

In a virtual meeting, networking is a bit more difficult than simply walking up to an individual or a group and joining in the conversation. “Seeing” people on a virtual platform doesn’t have the immediacy of seeing their faces, but rather checking a participant list or patiently waiting for a response to a text. Just as you text first to arrange a Facetime conversation, the video chat on the platform worked much the same way.

Additionally, there was quite a bit of uncertainty as to the etiquette of a virtual convention. How should we behave? What comes across as pushy? I am confident we will get better at this with time.

This uncertainty often meant that attending the convention was, at least initially, a pretty isolated and individual experience. It took effort to find people and text chat or video chat. There was no walking into a giant room abuzz with voices and full of people.

Most in-person attendees are owners or managers and often come solo or bring one employee. It is expensive to attend and in-person event, and someone has to keep the business running. Conversely for the virtual event, some members registered several people from their staff so they could have a watch party at the office, enjoy the presentations and move through the exhibit hall together to give some conversation and camaraderie to the event. Others formed their groups online and kept the conversation alive in the chat functions and caught the competitive spirit with our passport game. The hook of cheap CE became a team-building opportunity.

CANA Supplier Members are a crucial factor as to WHY we hold our Convention. This event was our one big annual opportunity to connect exhibitors with attendees and showcase their products, services and solutions. A virtual convention supports our funeral home, cemetery, and crematory members sharing their challenges with professional colleagues, and our supplier members putting their solutions front-and-center.

In addition to apologizing for missing networking, many registrants apologized to exhibitors in the post-event evaluation survey for not visiting the trade show or for only visiting after hours. Some attendees chose to simply enjoy watching the pre-loaded video and downloading information from the booth page rather than interact more directly with exhibit staff. Even those who attended during staffed hours would not necessarily communicate through the booth text or video chat. The average booth attracted 150 visitors with maybe 5% entering the group video chat. That is completely opposite of an in-person trade show experience and entirely out of the exhibitors’ control.

The primary challenge faced by exhibitors was they couldn’t “see” visitors to their booth. Many had set up a table-top style booths with a video feed, expecting people to click on the group video chat link and enter their booth, but only a handful of attendees did so. The surveys showed that they either didn’t notice the link or weren’t sure what they would walk into. One survey respondent specifically requested a preview to see if they wanted to enter and who was in there, before committing to clicking on the link. If seeing is believing, no wonder exhibitors questioned whether the final tally of booth visitors CANA downloaded through the platform and forwarded to each of them was accurate.

Here too, the etiquette of a virtual exhibit booth was uncertain. Was it rude to click on a link unannounced and barge in? Why were some booths empty and while others were staffed?

Education is what CANA does well and is the easiest to translate to a virtual experience. CANA’s online Crematory Operations Certification Program (COCP) is wildly successful. CANA webinars are attracting crowds as well. But a convention is different. It is an event that people experience together, in one room, at an appointed time for several hours in what would otherwise be a busy workday. At least, that is what meeting planners believe and plan for accordingly, but many of our virtual meeting attendees and exhibitors were multi-tasking and not giving their full attention to the online content.

Fortunately, across the board, our presenters received rave reviews. We were very thoughtful and intentional about our selection of presenters – a virtual event is no time for a sage on a stage. A presenter needs to engage with the audience through polls, questions asked and answered in the chat, and the electric energy to keep an invisible audience focused on the content and away from their inboxes. Handouts and downloadable slidedecks are valuable, but the presentation itself needs to be the first priority.

CANA enjoyed the benefits of going first, in that attendees and exhibitors were curious about a virtual platform, forgiving of technical difficulties and offered grace to those learning the new technology.

We learned that not every element of an in-person convention translates to a virtual platform. For example, I decided to hold the membership meeting the week after the Convention, which meant we didn’t have a quorum and had to reschedule again and work harder to achieve the quorum we easily obtained during the convention. I won’t repeat that mistake.

It was heartening to see how every event participant learned to be the expert, then went on to help others. That could mean that they discovered something, then posted it to share with others. CANA is made up of caring people who want to support and help each other. We were all learning the platform even as we were teaching others. For the event, CANA Staff opened the Convention early to allow for some time to familiarize with the platform. That, in addition to live tech support by phone, email, one-on-one chat, Zoom, and Convention chat meant that we were able to answer questions and get people on their virtual feet quickly. And with CANA staff on the other end of the line, we were a friendly and familiar connection to our registrants.

Bottom line, the old adage “You get out of it what you put into it” is as true with a virtual event as in life. Whether through attention, technology, or preparation, we all can improve.

More virtual events – for certain. A number of state, provincial and national associations are offering their own virtual conventions and trade shows in Fall 2020. Will they be the same as in-person experiences? No. They will be great, but they won’t be the same. Virtual is an alternative, but not a replacement.

CANA is planning a Hybrid Symposium on February 10-11, 2021 in Las Vegas at The Linq Hotel and Casino. That means we’ll provide the opportunity to gather in-person for live sessions and Vegas fun, with portions of the program livestreamed for online participants. I am optimistically planning for a hybrid experience, because there has to be a path forward and CANA is excited to find it.

CANA is also planning another Game Night for members. You are working hard and deserve a break and prizes. In the meantime, we’ll continuing learning together and helping one another. So until we can safely meet again, I will see you via Zoom.

You know, there are so many things we can’t control right now, and for most of us, that makes us anxious. But I want to encourage you with this: In each moment of your life, you have the ability to change yourself and those around you in profound ways.

No matter the time.

No matter the day.

No matter the circumstance.

Even amid moments of uncertainty, like the one we find ourselves in right now.

In moments that seem out of our control, there’s always something that’s within it: our perspective. I like to say that I’m a Spiritual Pragmatist, which means that while I appreciate believing in a higher power and it’s guidance and influence in our lives, I also believe in action and doing, to bring about success and happiness. It’s about having balance, and part of having that balance means that we have to be conscious and mindful of how we’re showing up and how that influences any given situation, including the one we’re amid right now.

I spent 20 years as a funeral director and embalmer; I like to say that everything I’ve ever learned, I learned from dying. One would think that a career surrounded by death would have taught me a lot about dying, but in fact it taught me so much about life, and gifted to me the most beautiful lessons. Ones that, in moments like this, come through with crystal clarity and enable me to put into action the behaviours that can ground me, even amid all of the uncertainty.

My British, tea-totting grandmother used to say, “Good tea steeps.” My grandmother knew the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. For her, there was no such thing as an efficient way to make tea; there was only an effective way. Can you make tea by dropping a tea bag into a mug of water and putting it in the microwave for ninety seconds? You can, sure. But, according to her, that’s not going to make a delicious cup of tea.

A drive-through car wash is efficient, but you might enjoy the therapeutic process of washing your car by hand. Ordering takeout is an adequate way to put dinner on the table, but a great satisfaction comes with preparing a meal from scratch yourself. Sending a friend a text message to see how they’re doing is an economic use of time, but it’s not quite the same as picking up the phone and talking.

As a society, we are consumed by efficiency, collectively racing from one thing to the other and from one person to the next. Being able to make the rush seem effortless is perceived as honorable. Those who work the most are revered, as though the most stressed-out person will be awarded a trophy. Sometimes you have to choose the efficient way; there’s no denying that. But we could all try a little harder to choose the effective way more often, especially when it comes to our relationships. How do we do that when we are in the throes of the hustle or in the midst of chaos? We pause.

Most of life’s magic happens in moments of pause. We need to stop and re-centre in order to reach a state of conscious awareness. Pausing helps us to slow down and plan our time more effectively, so that we create more meaning in our lives. The way my grandmother did with her tea. Normally I would profess the importance of creating the space to do this, and so often, and I’m including myself, we struggle to find the time to do it.

Now, we’re at a place in time where the world has quite literally slowed down. So many of us are sequestered away in our homes, adjusting to a world where physical distancing is common place, and life outside of our homes has come to a grinding halt. Is there time in your day to create the space to reinvest in something that brings you joy? It wasn’t that long ago that many of us likely caught ourselves complaining that we didn’t have enough time in a day, or that we were missing out on things in life: missing quality time with our children, missing time for the gym, missing time to just sit and read. There are likely many more things you could add to this list.

While we adjust to this new normal we find ourselves in, try to negotiate some time for you to invest in ‘the pause’, even if that time is spent on an activity like reading a book, or moving your body, meditating or sitting in prayer. Whatever it is that fills your cup, it’s important to realize that in order to be of service to others, we have to spend time investing in ourselves.

The late, great Jim Rohn once said that we’re each a reflection of those with whom we spend the most time, so the key to being your best self is to be surrounded by those who support and inspire you. I like to call these my “finger snap people.” They’re the ones with whom you feel an instant attraction, as quickly as you can snap your fingers. More often than not, you can’t quite distinguish exactly what it is that draws you to them, but their energy is like a magnet. There’s something about their character that causes you to be perfectly content with who you are, while also inspiring you to seek ways to be a better version of yourself. And when you find these like-minded individuals, hold on to them tightly, because you are much more powerful together than alone.

We might be physically distant from one another right now, but that doesn’t stop us from taking advantage of the incredible technology that helps us stay connected. I would encourage you to reach out to one of your ‘finger snap people’. Make that phone call, send that email, heck, you can even watch a movie together over video chat. Will it be perfect? Maybe not, but you’re connecting to people that matter, at a time when connection matters. I promise that you’ll feel a little better afterwards, because people need people and we’re all in this together. We don’t have to make grand gestures. The most meaningful moments can happen in the simplest of ways.

Sometimes, allowing someone the space to be seen and heard is the one thing they need the most, as they navigate their new normal right now. If that person is you, your community, your go-to people, are the ones you can rely on, no matter what. Just ask. I suspect they’ll be there, in the snap of a finger. There’s no question that the world we find ourselves in today, isn’t the world we were in not that long ago. There’s also no question that through it all – the up’s, downs and all-arounds – if we just remember that our perspective can shift everything, we suddenly find ourselves with more control than we might have believed we ever had.

If there’s one thing I believe, it’s that everything we’ve ever been taught about legacy – either consciously or unconsciously, is that it’s something that there once we’re gone – once we’re dead. I also know that when we shift the narrative around legacy, from something we leave to something we live, every single day, we can realize the power of understanding the impact we’re making - while we’re still here. I’ve seen first hand how that shift can help us realize the depth and breadth of that impact, help define our purpose and help us live our everyday legacy. When we realize that the way we show up in the world today, is the way we’ll be remembered tomorrow, we transform not only our relationship with the world around us, but also with ourselves in that world.


For all the chaos that COVID-19 has caused in the world, it’s powerful to see humanity band together for the greater-good – living with purpose, on purpose and showing how marrying that with compassion can be so incredibly powerful.

Funeral professionals have a challenging job under normal circumstances; these are not normal circumstances. Covid-19 has simply turned the world upside down. As a psychologist who works with funeral homes and also works in one, I want to offer several suggestions for dealing with the additional stress created by the current epidemic. Many of these ideas come from my work on the Finding Resilience program sponsored by Homesteaders. You can download free materials here.
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Professionals in a wide variety of fields consider it a badge of honor to wear many hats in their business. However, I don’t know of any professionals who wear more hats than funeral directors. Within a single week, you might be expected to demonstrate knowledge of:

In the last few months, you have also had to add “remote videographer,” “social distancing expert,” “Covid-19 expert,” and “creative rituals coordinator”. Not only are all of these duties happening under significant time pressure, but also in the midst of continually changing state and local regulations. It’s no wonder that funeral directors are feeling the effects of compassion fatigue and/or burnout.
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Ideally it is best to make relatively small changes to reduce feelings of burnout before it becomes overwhelming. These changes may include hiring additional staff, delegating responsibilities to others, or finding a colleague to cover during much-needed time off. Funeral professionals experiencing profound burnout, anxiety or depression may seek professional help from their physician or a therapist. Hopefully, you may only need a few “course adjustments” to keep you on a productive, lower-stress path. Here are my suggestions for reducing stress under normal circumstances as well as during the current crisis.

​I have been talking with many funeral professionals across the country and the most consistent reactions I hear include sadness. Funeral professionals are feeling sad that they are not able to provide the full range of funeral rituals and events to bereaved families. They are sad that people are dying alone. And they are sad that families are not receiving the benefits of funeral rituals including support and healing.

I know you can’t do your job the way you would like, but please know that you continue to provide an invaluable service. You may not be able to give someone a hug, but your simple presence and compassion (even if expressed through a video chat) are still a vital service to grieving families. Thank you for the sacrifices of your own potential safety to serve others. Thank you for the innovative ways you have created to meet the needs of the bereaved. Do your best to care for yourself. The world needs you more than ever.

On top of our individual concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, we are inundated with good and bad information, helpful tips, fake news, political sniping and unfounded scary rumors. We are staying home and doing what the CDC and health officials recommend. And we are afraid.
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We crave “leadership of frankness and vigor,” and yet that attribute may seem in short supply today, although there are occasional glimpses. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt expressed that phrase in his first inaugural speech in March 1933 in the depth of the Great Depression:

We expect leaders to lead. We will follow leaders who are frank and through vigorous action show that they care about us. We will support those leaders and we will do the right things. We need leaders who communicate reassurance and offer light in an ever-darkening world. As we face unthinkable conditions, that may seem difficult right now. However, it is imperative that leaders speak realistically and frankly, while remembering to be positive and appropriately hopeful.

Whether you are the leader of a family, a community organization, a corporation, a nonprofit or a government, your job is to convey leadership through actions and the words you choose. You need to make hard decisions, be honest in your communications, and all the while “be careful not to scare the hell out of people,” as Dinesh Paliwal, President and CEO of Harman International, told Wall Street Journal.

This is particularly important in the funeral and cremation professions. In a recent webinar coordinated by webCemeteries.com, industry leaders reminded participants about the pivotal societal role that funeral professionals play in serving families. They note that in times of war, terrorist attacks, economic depressions and recessions, and now global pandemic, funeral advisors are called upon to comfort families in what is already an extremely stressful time.

At this time of crisis, funeral profession leaders say it is imperative to adhere to the values and principles of service to families that have always driven the funeral profession. Address your fears and the fears of families. Establish rapport and build the trust that families need at the time of a loved one’s death. Reassure families you will be with them and then live up to that promise, even if you must rely on videoconferencing instead of face-to-face meetings, and photographs and virtual tours of your properties, instead of in-person visits.
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Adapt, and demonstrate caring responsibility in the worst of times, they say.

History’s strongest leaders have led us honestly and communicated their commitment eloquently in times of crisis.
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President Abraham Lincoln, who saw seven Southern states secede between November 6, 1860, the day he was elected, and his inauguration March 4, 1861, appealed to Americans’ “better angels,” as he worked to prevent our nation from tearing further apart. Lincoln ended his inaugural address by saying:

Leaders in the funeral and cremation professions can address their own fears, then help fill the emotional tanks of colleagues, families and friends, offering a beacon of hope

Perhaps the leadership and words of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, provide the most apt instruction for today’s COVID-19 pandemic. During the Crimean War, between 1853 to 1856, more soldiers were dying from infections than from battle injuries. Nightingale and her team of nurses reduced the death count by two thirds by improving the unsanitary conditions at a British hospital.

“Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection,” Nightingale said.
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Even more illuminating today are these words from this “Lady with the Lamp” who said,

Communications with frankness and vigor, indeed.
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Be safe. Help others to move past the fear. Be that inspirational leader.

In 2020, maintaining and keeping good quality talent on your team isn’t just a want, it’s an absolute need. It’s what’s going to determine your success and the foundation of your business moving into this next decade.
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This next generation needs a purpose, something that fires them up and gets them out of bed in the morning. Yes, millennials want to make a living, but they want to make a meaningful living. According to Forbes, millennials ranked meaningful work as one of the top needs they have from their workplace.

If leaders and those in positions of power can take this quote by Marcus Buckingham to heart, I believe we would see so much more retention amongst our profession.

Here are some harsh realities:

How connected do you think your employees are to your company? If we are being honest with ourselves, there are plenty of areas we can improve in this category.
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According to a study done by Gallup in 2017, 230,000 employees were surveyed in 142 countries on their current engagement. Employees fall into one of three categories:

Only 13% of employees they surveyed were truly passionate and motivated by the work they did every day. An astounding 63% were not engaged, and 24% were actively disengaged.
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The impact of a disengaged employee can negatively impact your business in the following ways:

Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about the actively disengaged. They just need a path out. However, the statistics show that around 63% have the potential to be engaged if we put the effort in to putting meaning behind what they are doing.

What category would you put most of your employees in? Do they fall into the popular category not engaged? Maybe it’s time to rethink how you’re motivating your employees. Do you share a common purpose that they can buy into with passion? How often do you give praise? Could it be time to put more incentive compensation plans in place? Purpose and incentive are the keys to motivating engagement.

Once we have worked to get our employees into the “engaged” category, the positive benefits have an astounding impact. Statistics show that 50% will post messages on social media and 24% are more likely to help boost sales than disengaged employees. Find ways to bring meaning back so that your employees live in the engaged category, and your firm is guaranteed to reap the benefits.

HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Obviously, all this talk about having engaged employees is only possible if we hire the right people from the get-go that are naturally motivated. Service attitude is a big thing we look for at JCG. Recognize if they have the natural ability to go above and beyond to exceed a customer’s expectations. Are they good listeners, do they care, are they genuinely interested in other people and have a desire to always be learning? You can teach service aptitude (the ability recognize service opportunities), but you can’t teach attitude (the desire to serve).

ONBOARDING AND TRAINING
Develop a welcome program that makes them remember their first day. Decorate their desk with a welcome sign, write an internal spotlight, or take them to lunch with your team. Remember, their first day of work is one way to set the tone for their engagement. Spend a lot of effort on helping them to understand WHY you do what you do and how they bring value to that purpose. The first few weeks are critical to employee engagement. The more they buy in early, the more likely they are to want to stick around.

Initial training an on-going training is essential to employee engagement. You must teach them skills to be successful. Have a minimum standard for customer service expectations in writing and don’t train just once. Reinforce the expectations as often as weekly. This includes modeling, observing, and measuring behavior.

RETENTION AND RELATIONSHIPS
Employees are more engaged when they are recognized, so communicate! Provide for feedback, and even ask for feedback yourself. Peer recognition is another way to keep employees engaged. Set up a quarterly award that gets everyone involved to recognize their peers. Feedback is the key, as this next generation craves it.

So where should we start? A good place to assess where your engagement is at is to survey your staff about their happiness at work. Ask about if they feel valued, and if they appreciate the kind of feedback they get.

It might be a rude awakening, but we all have to start somewhere. Getting the data is the only way you can grow from today into reaping the benefits of having engaged employees long into the future.

Want to learn more about increase employee engagement and improve customer service? Join Lori Salberg and more cremation rockstars in Las Vegas for CANA’s 2020 Cremation Symposium, February 26-28. Lori will present on “Developing a Collaborative Growth Culture” to re-invigorate organizations by fully engaging employees, improving performance of the business overall.
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See what else we have planned and register for CANA's 2020 Cremation Symposium: goCANA.org/CG

I had the pleasure of presenting for CANA in 2009, and the past ten years have seen changes across the business world. What’s new or different about leadership today? And what are the biggest challenges leaders face in their businesses and communities?
In my work I advise hundreds of leaders each year. From their experiences, questions, hopes and fears, combined with the assessments of those they lead about what their leaders do well and what they do poorly, I’ve compiled eight challenges I hear most often and some suggestions about what to do to find your solution:

1. USE OF OUTDATED TIME MANAGEMENT THINKING.
   The research is clear: multitasking is a myth – switching between two tasks can take up to 40% longer to complete both. Life balance doesn’t make sense either. It is about life design: devoting the right number of hours and energy to the most important things. It is time to reexamine outdated beliefs about time management and productivity. The ability to focus intently (“single-tasking”) on what is important should be at the top of your productivity list. And don’t feel guilty if your life isn’t balanced if it is well designed.
2. TREATING THOSE THEY LEAD AS “FOLLOWERS.”When asked what I think is the biggest change in leadership, my answer is followers. Those we lead increasingly resist thinking of themselves as followers, and for good reason. This is a limiting term that poorly represents the relationship we need. Employees want to be (and deserve to be) thought of as contributors, colleagues and team members. The concept of “following” to those we lead is as negatively tinged as referring to those in customer service as “servile.” Unless you’re a religious guru, you are better served leading a team of contributors than a band of followers.
3. FEAR OF THE GREAT UNKNOWN.No leader likes uncertainty but today the size and impact of the unknown can be more devastating than in the past. Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote the definitive book about overconfidence in our ability to predict, anticipate and plan. He describes the improbable black swan: an unpredictable or unforeseen event, typically one with extreme consequences. Many leaders act as if black swans never happen, or can be avoided, but leadership is as much about taking action in the face of the unknown as it is gathering information to eliminate the unknown and mitigate consequences. No leader is clairvoyant, so he or she must accept the real limitations of knowledge about the future and act accordingly.
4. A FALSE DICHOTOMY OF ETHICS.Trying to separate personal ethics from professional ethics is a bad idea. There are just ethics, and trying to apply two different standards isn’t just confusing, it is wrong. Why would you trust someone at work that you know to be a conniving liar in his or her personal life? And why would you allow something that you know is wrong to happen at work? One psychologist calls it the normalization of deviance: making it acceptable to do at work what is wrong to do outside work. Leaders work hard to create what I conversely call the “normalization of integrity.” Without clearly defined values that are lived and observed by others, ethics slip dangerously.
5. OVEREMPHASIS ON GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES.Not that long ago leaders often seemed to ignore generational differences. The pendulum has swung to another extreme. There seems to be a belief that everyone is so different we can’t effectively lead! Generations are different, and understanding those differences can provide effective tools for communication and collaborating better. At the same time people regardless of age share much in common: the need to belong to a winning team, meaning in their work, satisfaction in the jobs they do, and much more. Leaders must balance understanding and using differences and unifying their teams with shared interests and beliefs.
6. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT.It is as important as competing for talent, a common dilemma according to my clients. One of the biggest myths I encounter is the belief that if you just get the best people on your team, your job is done. John Wooden wisely noted that he didn’t want the best players on his team. He wanted the players that made his team best. That points to the importance of engagement and teamwork. Talent is a start, but it is never enough. Divisive star players and disengaged genius are both liabilities. Good leaders find the best people and then focus on keeping them engaged.
7. LACK OF PREPARATION TO SUCCESSFULLY LEAD.My research shows that only one in four leaders feels prepared when they assume formal leadership positions. Leaders need to learn to lead before they get their marching orders, not after. And that isn’t accomplished just through books and coursework but through real world projects and assignments where leadership skills are developed. If you don’t give your team members a chance to lead before they become formal leaders, they will lack the skills and confidence to lead when they move into management.
8. BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION.While speaking to a global technology company, I learned that their executives were more worried about innovation in business models than the impact of technology. A business model is the way a company makes money, and can be used defensively against competitors, to reinvigorate revenues in declining markets, or as a way of exploring new opportunities. Few business models are exempt from the need to be revisited and revised regularly. Business model innovation is increasing at lightning speed and may well be the single greatest high level business challenge leaders face.

Which of these challenges are you facing? And what are you doing to meet them head on?
Here’s a final thought: no challenge + no change = boredom. You might wish for fewer challenges than you currently face, but ultimately dealing with challenge and change is the essence of leadership.