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CANA The 107th Cremation Innovation Convention, Arizona 2025
43 Plays16 days ago
In this special episode of The Glam Reaper Podcast, Jennifer Muldowney takes us inside the CANA Convention to uncover bold ideas, inspiring stories, and the future of funeral service.
Jennifer sits down with powerhouse women and industry innovators making waves in the profession. Lisa Bowie shares how Funeral Women Lead is breaking barriers with the first-ever Wellness Summit and Women’s Leadership Academy. Melissa talks about her work with Security National and why advocacy, mentorship, and support for women entering funeral service is more urgent than ever.
You’ll also hear from Darren at Passages, whose eco-friendly urns and biodegradable memorial products are reshaping how families honor loved ones—from Himalayan salt urns to GPS-tracked scattering memorials. And Will and Hannah Laura from Cold Spring reveal the artistry behind their 127-year legacy in quarrying and bronze memorialization, including national monuments, private mausoleums, and even hand-sculpted angels and granite castles.
Tune in to discover how innovation, mentorship, and community are redefining the funeral profession and why now is the time to support the leaders driving it forward.
Key Topics:
-Empowering women in the funeral profession
-Mentorship and community supportz
-Innovation in eco-friendly memorial products
-Honoring legacy through artistry and tradition
-Building confidence and leadership for future generations
Timestamp:
[00:00] Podcast Intro
[00:20] Jennifer Muldowney sits down with Lisa Bowie at the CANA Convention to discuss empowering women in the funeral profession through Funeral Women Lead, leadership and wellness programs, and her new book Wake Up Calls.
[04:41] Jennifer chats with Melissa about her role at Security National, her advocacy with Funeral Women Lead, and why supporting women entering the funeral and cremation profession matters.
[08:50] Jennifer speaks with Darren from Passages about eco-friendly urns and burial products and innovative memorial tools that blend sustainability with remembrance.
[19:34] Jennifer connects with Will and Hannah Laura from Cold Spring to explore the company’s 127-year legacy in quarrying and bronze memorialization.
[28:09] Outro
Connect with Darren Crouch:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/darren-crouch-9a450236
Websites: passagesinternational.com (Company)
Connect with Lisa Baue:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lisa-baue
Websites: yourfuneralcoach.com (Company)
Connect with Melissa Posey Loose:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/melissaploose
Connect with Hannalora and Will:
Website: https://coldspringusa.com/
Connect with Jennifer/The Glam Reaper on socials at:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jennifermuldowney/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@therealglamreaper
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheGlamReaperMuldowney
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermuldowney/
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Email us - glamreaperpodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Empowering Women in the Funeral Industry
00:00:00
Speaker
There's a lot of women out there that need work on their self-confidence. Yeah. They they need help with validating themselves as well as speaking up and advocating for themselves. Yes. Right. So we have...
00:00:20
Speaker
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast. I'm your host Jennifer Muldowney aka the Glam Reaper. Today, this week, I am at KENA, the Cremation Association of North America's annual convention and I am joined by the one, the only, the fabulous Lisa Bowie. Lisa, welcome!
00:00:39
Speaker
Thank you, Jennifer. We're so glad to be here. It's so fun. It's so fun. Awesome to be with your guests. Oh, well, listen, we we always have great fun. And I know that sounds wild to have fun at a funeral convention. Oh, we do. It was exactly. And I did i did laugh though. Somebody made a funny comment on my LinkedIn post when I posted that I was here. And they were like, well, that's kind of ironic.
00:00:58
Speaker
The fact that it's a funeral convention about cremation in Phoenix. The word fun is in funeral. right that is true if you end right That is true. And mean here's the honest truth. I mean, we you get us out of town and we need a way to let go.
00:01:11
Speaker
And so we'll drink maybe be a little wine. Maybe, no. can't say that about me. but this yeah heres Too many martinis. And if you know, you know. sure i need to have i need to have a different name. The glamour doesn't suit.
Introducing Lisa Bowie and Her Initiatives
00:01:25
Speaker
and But tell us, you have huge news. We have huge news. So I'm with Funeral Women Lead now and we're an organization that helps unleash the greatness in women. And which is cool. Yes. Yes. Very cool. Everybody says, well, I'm great already. I said, yes, we are.
00:01:39
Speaker
Right. However, there's a lot of women out there that need work on their self-confidence. Yeah. They they need help with validating themselves as well as speaking up and advocating for the house. Right.
00:01:50
Speaker
So we have this summer this winter, actually November-ish, not winter, but this fall, ah two great programs coming up, the wellness our Wellness Summit yeah and our Women's Leadership Academy. Both for women.
00:02:04
Speaker
Both never been done in our our profession. And this is to help women grow as leaders, help themselves in areas of wellness, business wellness, professional, yeah personal wellness, wellness.
00:02:15
Speaker
Yeah. Really cool stuff. yeah for Oh, something else. Something else. so mail So September 3rd, I have a book coming out. It's called Wake Up Calls. And it's about my journey as a young woman growing in the business.
00:02:27
Speaker
Lots of leadership life lessons. Things I didn't do well. ah Lots of things I learned. And all the proceeds from the book sales of Wake Up Calls. we'll be going to charities that support women. Wow.
00:02:40
Speaker
And women's scholarships in our profession. Good for you. Well, I personally cannot wait to get my hands on that book. So September 3rd, people, mark it in your diaries, mark it in your calendars. Yeah. Lisa is...
00:02:53
Speaker
You're definitely like one of the go-to, I feel like, females in this business. Like, oh you are. You know everybody. You've been through you've been through the ups and downs. You are. And like, you've you've helped me personally. I mean, she really is. She's just one of those genuine, which, you know, they're rare in this business.
00:03:11
Speaker
Genuine, authentic people who will actually help you out, really and truly. as Well, and I think that's our responsibility. Yeah.
The Role of Mentorship and Support Among Women
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. As women. out And as we grow and we grow ourselves, we have to reach out and support each other. 100%. I think women do that so well. Much of the time. Most of the time. Right. Exactly. Well, if you don't, then you're with the wrong woman. Yes.
00:03:31
Speaker
And that's it. Find others. Yeah. And coaches, mentors. I did when I was young. There were very few. Yeah. But now there's manyte many, many, many, many. Yeah. And at Funeral Women Lead, we're going to have a large group on a resource center of women who are willing to coach and mentor other women. That's amazing. So we're super excited about that, too.
00:03:49
Speaker
And if you are a mentor or a coach and you're listening to this and want to be part of us, go to FuneralWomenLead.org and please join us. There you go. free. There you go. And we love that. Everyone loves something free.
00:04:00
Speaker
That's right. So, guys, whether you're a guy or a girl, This is take this on board and guys should get the book too, honestly, because they should. Yeah, because yeah there's lots of lessons in there. I learned from my men mentors. Yeah.
00:04:13
Speaker
And they were amazing. And if it hadn't been for many of them, I wouldn't be here today. i would never been able to buy, own or manage much less myself, but my family business. Yeah, yeah.
00:04:24
Speaker
Lisa is legend, a living legend. Thank you so much. Thank God I'm still alive. Yeah, exactly. Very much living. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Lisa. We will have her back on for a full podcast, though, guys. All right. See everybody, later. Got to go work my booth. Bye.
00:04:40
Speaker
and Hello everybody and welcome. i am here with the gorgeous Melissa. Gorgeous. um Another strong and fabulous lady we have here at Cana, the Cremation Association of North America.
00:04:52
Speaker
As you guys know, I'm here for the convention. Melissa, you are at, I swear to God, this woman is at every convention. I don't know how you have a day job. Like she just feels like she travels around. That's your own social media and it's it's just following all the trips. oh How are you? I'm well. Good. So tell us what you're doing now because you were at the NFTA and then you got... Oh, yes.
00:05:13
Speaker
Well, it's been a a few years since I was there. And so I'm a security national. um I'm working with the Mortuaries and Cemetery Division of vision of cer Security National. Okay. So we have multiple locations in Utah, and New Mexico, and California.
00:05:29
Speaker
Okay, so this is really your neck of the woods out here. Yes, it is. Very, very hot. Phoenix, Arizona. It's very hot. It's very hot. Yes, it is so hot. My little Irish skin is crackling, guys. we're's We're not in hot weather quite like this. Oh, God.
00:05:45
Speaker
That's a lot. And where are you based yourself? i'm I'm based out of Salt Lake City. Oh, nice. Okay. A friend of mine is there at the moment, actually. yeah am Very nice. Well, I love to come and visit because i I'm never this side of the woods at all. like i Love to have you. Yeah, it's always East Coast.
00:05:59
Speaker
So, um Security National is is the gang. Yeah. love that. um And tell us, because you and Erin... You work with Erin Krieger. I do. Yeah. um You and Erin are often on social media, very empowering women. And you also have joined Lisa Bowie in the funeral.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yes. Women lead. Yes. So Melissa is, I feel like she's a great advocate for women. and yeah And actually there's another funeral women lead. um So, but yeah, tell us a little bit about why you're involved in that project as
Inclusivity in Funeral Women Lead: Men's Role
00:06:30
Speaker
well. if you will and i Yeah. I love advocating for women in our profession. It stems from me,
00:06:37
Speaker
having maybe not so positive experience when I first came into the profession, but it doesn't have to be that way. Yeah. And um with so many females or people identifying as that coming into mortuary school, that's, you know, and we're close to 80%. Yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
They need some support because, and it's not to say that the gentlemen in our profession haven't, you know, been there. There's some fabulous feedback. Absolutely. We just need to circle the wagons yeah around this group and help them know that they are here and ready to lead, right? Have a seat at the table. yeah um The beautiful thing about Funeral Women Lead, yes, it is for women, but i always say there's so many men that I've talked to that said, how can we help support this? yeah So it's very inclusive. Even though the name might put it off a little bit, right?
00:07:23
Speaker
um But so we're just really happy that people are coming together and supporting. Yeah. And that's it. I definitely feel like I've been on the circuit for 16 years, as most of you know. um And I've definitely seen a lot of changes. I feel like there's more and more allies, as you said, like men, you know, just supporting. And as you like, again, as you said, like students in the schools are women. Yeah. But women historically were the funeral directors. Absolutely. The people versus the dead, right? Yeah.
00:07:51
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it's it's full circle. It is full circle. cool Oh, I think there's so many f full circles happening right now in funeral service. Yeah. Absolutely. And they're in beautiful, new, and different ways. Yeah. um And I've met some wonderful funeral directors here and cremationists. Yeah. um And they a lot of them are women, you know. Yeah. And they're just looking for opportunities. Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
So it's time just really open those doors. yeah I don't want to hear anymore. We don't have a pool of hiring people. You do. Yes. You just need to reframe yeah potentially what you're thinking about offering to your families so and the experience that they want to have. yeah Yeah. That's exactly it.
Eco-friendly Memorial Products by Darren from Passages
00:08:26
Speaker
So you heard it here first.
00:08:29
Speaker
Open your ears, open your eyes. You've got people, you've got people. And Melissa, you're very similar to Lisa and you're one of those go-to people. She's been fabulous to me in my journey. Like you are, you're one of those people who know everybody and just are great at connecting people. So I love that. I love that. yeah Thank you.
00:08:47
Speaker
Hit up Melissa. Yeah, hit me up. Yeah, great. Guys, I have one of my favorite companies in the funeral space, Darren from Passages. He's not my favorite company. His company is...
00:08:58
Speaker
Darren, welcome. Thank you. Loving the t-shirt. Very good. All branded out. You are all branded out. We are about to actually have presentation, so it's been super quick. You have probably seen, if you follow me on TikTok or on YouTube, you have seen that I have one of my favorite urns.
00:09:12
Speaker
It's the one I'm going to go in. It's the Himalayan soldier and I love that. It's beautiful. Gorgeous. Yeah, it's absolutely beautiful. i actually did a hilarious TikTok where I did one of the dances on it. Anyway, we won't talk about But tell me a little bit about, or tell them a little bit about Passages.
00:09:27
Speaker
So, specials as best Passages specializes in environmentally friendly ah options. Yeah. um We have products for green burial, if families want natural burial. We have...
00:09:38
Speaker
products for scattering and for biodegradable burial. And then we also have a very unique program where we enable families that scatter to geolocate where they scattered and put a pin on a map.
00:09:49
Speaker
You love that. And create a memorial. Yeah. Love, love, love, love, love that. And I have used um some of Passage's products many times. Did a beautiful Yash Rose Memorial where we had your little scattering urns.
00:10:03
Speaker
and We might get a, we'll put in a little shot of of some of them, but gorgeous stuff. And One thing I just learned is you have fired a grid with glitter. Yes. But I have a lot of views.
00:10:14
Speaker
i I need to get my hands on that. I'm going to be the next influencer. I got to get my hands up on that. We got to do some glitter stuff. Love it. So, guys, if you've never heard of passages, please look them up. You can get them through my website, but you can Google passages as well.
00:10:27
Speaker
Darren is also not American, you might have gathered. Where are you from? I'm from England originally, but grew up in Southern Africa. So i don't have quite the twang that you do. No. it's a twang enough it's a twang enough us foreigners have to stick together right here yeah exactly and but check out their stuff really really gorgeous eco-conscious it even featured in a famous Irish and series Bad Sisters isn't that what it's called yeah and they actually had the Himalayan Saltern and they they sent it out but in a yeah with a wreath and stuff was fantastic beautiful stuff
00:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, we love ah we also have a TikTok with a lot of views where we had a like a fish tank and we put a salt urn in it and it in ah it's like time tidier and you just see it disappeared. That thing got hundreds of thousands of views. Wow. I might have to add that to my own. It's fabulous. and It's really, really good stuff because thats I have my salt urn and it's on display at my bar, very Irish of me, and but it actually has started melting because I'm in Florida now.
00:11:26
Speaker
So it's starting to, you know, like shed. Right. Well, the thing is you need to just wipe it off. Yeah. Start again. That's this i brought it. I brought it to the pool with me. Anyway, Darren, thank you so much.
00:11:36
Speaker
This is day two of the Cana Convention. I'm here chatting with now, Hannah Laura. Yes. That is a very unusual name. And... how Will. Will. For some reason, I thought it was Calvin. Apologies. Okay, so Will and Honolora.
00:11:50
Speaker
where First of all, where's that name from? It's German. It's German. Oh, and I love the Germans. I love Germany. germany and it is In Germany, it is Anna LaRae. Anna LaRae? I'm kind of the American version. Right. Okay. I like it. I like it.
00:12:05
Speaker
So tell us a little bit about
Cold Spring's Legacy in Memorial Craftsmanship
00:12:07
Speaker
you guys. You're fabulous. But tell us, Cold Springs is where you work. Yes, we both um work for Cold Spring, ah which is located in, oddly enough, Cold Spring, Minnesota.
00:12:17
Speaker
And so it's pretty easy to remember. yeah ah And we own in the U.S. about 30 quarries, and we own a couple of quarries in Canada. And so we are vertically integrated. We own the entire supply chain.
00:12:31
Speaker
um And we also have a large bronze foundry. ah We've been in business for 127 years. Wow. A family-owned business.
00:12:41
Speaker
And it is amazing to me, some of the things that we do, like, for instance, bronze memorialization, When you come to our facility, you see the letter setters, and they are literally have the plates that is going to be the frame or the foundation of memorial.
00:12:56
Speaker
And when we put the letters on there, they're taking wax and warming it up and putting it under the letters and putting the letters on individually the same way we have always done it. Yeah. And we could modernize it in some way, but we wouldn't end up with the same quality or the same product. Yeah.
00:13:12
Speaker
um ah So we we're really, really amazing at holding on to our history yeah and what we do well, but also working to innovate in new directions at this young time. so Yes, because you have to do you have to do both things simultaneously these days. It's hard. It's not easy.
00:13:31
Speaker
Now tell us, what would be a new style to funeral homes? So we are we we support um funeral homes. cemeterians, monument dealers. um And one of the things that I think we both find really, really amazing that we get the opportunity to do is when you consider ah large community monuments, when you think about going down ah to Washington, D.C., right, and you're going to walk on the National Mall and you're going to look at all those national monuments, most all of that is our work.
00:14:02
Speaker
So most people have seen, experienced, cried over, you know, had had some sort of emotional response to the work that we do. Yeah. I just didn't know. Don't know who. Yeah, you got it. Yeah.
00:14:14
Speaker
That's so cool. It's kind of like years ago, I worked with a company that we're trying to come up with like an environmentally friendly version of cremation. and and And we engaged with Hissenkrupp, a German company, right? Yes. And I had never heard of them before. And like that, they said in the in the kind of the sales stage, they were, oh, we're everywhere. And ever now I notice them everywhere, in every lift, every appliance. It's like, so it is. there's there's always There's always people in the background doing the things and, you know, day to day life, you don't even notice, like, who's the made the carpet and stuff.
00:14:45
Speaker
um So that's fascinating. so I actually lived in DC too as well for a bit. So i all those monuments are stunning. What would be the most popular product or maybe the craziest products?
00:14:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, ah the The most popular and the craziest. um with With us, we are a very large ah bronze on granite, so it comes fully assembled.
00:15:08
Speaker
like So the bronze is ordered on granite. It allows you to customize the color to match, you know, the design you're doing or the colorization that you're doing. So I would say bronze on granite, um a basic in most any cemetery, you know, flat monument, um is probably our most common order. Yeah. yo um When we talk about the most interesting, um we always get really excited about when we get to do what we refer to as a private estate.
00:15:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Which would be a family mausoleum or cremation. And we're doing so many now that there is a walk-in family mausoleum that is all cremation. Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
And ah one of our most interesting just recently um is in Crown Hill in Indianapolis, Indiana, where we built a full um castle with a drawbridge.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah. Beautiful castle. And imagine, instead of instead of us having it, when you look at a large mausoleum, it's usually a large flat wall. You know, it's pieces of granite, very, very large pieces.
00:16:11
Speaker
And we try to do minimal jointing. But with this, it is literally built out of granite blocks. And when we when we rock pitch the edge of granite, it is still...
00:16:24
Speaker
Like this, right? There's still someone hitting that wow and knocking off those edges. And it really is one of a kind. And so we built that entire castle out of granite blocks that were all hand chiseled. Wow.
00:16:41
Speaker
ah So with the with the drawbridge, working drawbridge, everything. So we I kind of joke and say, if you can dream it, we can build it. Yeah. um And so we have the ability to whatever you could possibly imagine to memorialize your loved one. Yeah.
00:16:59
Speaker
I promise you we can do it. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. And gosh, I'd never you even thought of that. But um and there was a client I work with on my memorial planning side. Billionaire, right? Money, no objects, like insane.
00:17:12
Speaker
Spent like half a million on flowers for the service, like crazy, but wanted a private memorial garden in his... am home in the U.S. and They're actually from China, but in the U.S. they wanted um a statue.
00:17:24
Speaker
Now, I didn't have anything to do with it. I don't know what ended up happening and in the end. I must actually check in with them and see what they ended up doing. But that would be the type of work you yeah you guys would do. Another great example would be a cremation bench where the family wanted ah an angel, a life-size angel sitting on the end of the bench. Makes sense.
00:17:45
Speaker
But they wanted the face to be of their loved one. um's Right. Right? And we have one... You personalize it. Yeah. free So when we have, when you when you come to Cold Spring and we give a lot of people tours of our facility, it's really quite amazing. Yeah. But in the middle of one of our fabrication facilities, we have a large kind of booth that is curtained off.
00:18:06
Speaker
And there's one gentleman that does all of the hand sculpting. ah For all of our very intricate things. And that has been his career as he does. And so when we go, we're like, let's go see what who he's working on today. yeah Because Jeep Record, it could be someone. I've known.
00:18:21
Speaker
Right? You'll never know what it's going to be. Yeah. And wow so it is it is true artistry. yeah yeah And we had a family that was doing a large plaza of premation and they wanted a weeping angel out in front.
00:18:36
Speaker
And so um one of the the spouse had passed. And so the family wanted to come and have the experience of getting to see where all of their memorialization was going to be fabricated.
00:18:48
Speaker
And so um the. The husband came, who was in a wheelchair, and he had his wife's remains with him. And they said the family got to watch our sculptor make their angels.
00:19:02
Speaker
mo And had her there with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's full service and it's not just... Wow, it's beautiful. That is not what I was expecting with conversations to turn out. I don't know about you. do I love when that happens.
00:19:15
Speaker
I really do. um So that's amazing. Well, guys, check it out if you're in the area. um We'll leave some links for you you know if it people want to get in touch or whatever. But thank you so much for sharing this with me and sharing it with the Glamour Reaper podcast. Thank you very Thank you being interested. Always.
00:19:31
Speaker
Like, see? that's you just never know where conversations are going to go.