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From Mourning to Trending: Funeral Innovation with Ryan Thogmartin
32 Plays3 years ago
Welcome to this week’s episode of The Glam Reaper Podcast, where we sit down with the Owner/CEO of DISRUPT Media, Ryan Thogmartin, to discuss the tremendous impact of social media on the funeral industry. Prepare to discover how social media has reshaped the way we perceive and engage with this traditionally solemn business, and learn how you can harness its power for your own growth.
We'll also delve into Kari the Mortician's journey to becoming a social media sensation as Ryan himself reveals the surprising connection between social media and her success. As we explore the unexpected ways social media has revolutionized the funeral industry, we'll also discuss the significant role it plays in the growth and expansion of the business. Ryan shares jaw-dropping success stories and introduces us to the new age of marketing, where tradition meets innovation.
Ryan explains how marketing is all about storytelling and that it is much different to advertising. Marketing is an important way to portray an idea or a person. People buy into people, not the company. Funeral homes are successful because of the people that represent them; therefore branding yourself as a business is very important.
Finally, we’ll get a sneak peek into DISRUPT Media, the expert solution that has helped countless funeral homes innovate and elevate their business to new heights. Tune in to this episode and don't miss this incredible opportunity to learn from the best in the business!
“At the core, the thing that still matters the most is authenticity and relationship from an actual exchange of money.” - Ryan ThogmartinLITTLE NUGGETS OF GOLD:
- How Ryan juggles being an entrepreneur, husband, dad and life coach
- How Kari the Mortician’s social media presence paved her way to the top
- The game-changing impact that social media has had on the funeral industry and how it works
- The significant role of social media in expanding the reach and influence of the funeral industry
- Exploring contemporary marketing: An innovative approach to traditional marketing methods in the current industry landscape
- Unlocking the potential of social media marketing with DISRUPT Media: The expert solution to elevate your business growth to new heights
Connect with Ryan Thogmartin:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanthogmartin/
Website: https://social.disruptmedia.co/blog/author/ryan-thogmartin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryanthogmartin/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disruptmedia/
Connect with Jennifer/The Glam Reaper:
Facebook Page - Muldowney Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/MuldowneyMemorials/
Facebook Page - Rainbow Bridge Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/rainbowbridgememorialsdotcom
Instagram - @muldowneymemorials & @jennifermuldowney
Twitter - @TheGlamReaper
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:03
Speaker
I'm your host Jennifer Muldaney aka the Glam Reaper herself.
00:00:06
Speaker
On today's episode we have Ryan Thogmartin of Disrupt Media.
00:00:11
Speaker
A lot of funeral professionals will recognize that name for sure from the conventions and from generally just he's brilliant at what he does but maybe other people might not so we're going to have Ryan introduce himself and tell us a little bit more about what he does in the funeral profession
00:00:26
Speaker
but also in life because he does some life coaching.
00:00:29
Speaker
So stay tuned for this great episode.
Ryan Thogmartin's Background and Expertise
00:00:43
Speaker
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:46
Speaker
I'm your host Jennifer Muldenny aka the Glam Reaper herself and on today's episode I have a very glamorous looking Ryan Thogmartin.
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm loving all the colors in your background here, Ryan.
00:00:58
Speaker
So we are going to introduce Ryan and let him tell us who he is and maybe a bit about how we met or, you know, how we know each other and stuff.
00:01:06
Speaker
Ryan, take it away.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how to describe myself.
00:01:10
Speaker
I've been described so many different ways.
00:01:12
Speaker
Some I like, some I don't.
00:01:14
Speaker
So we'll just say I'm an entrepreneur, a marketer, a husband, a father, and a life coach.
00:01:21
Speaker
So I do a lot of different things, but I really just...
00:01:25
Speaker
enjoy storytelling and branding.
00:01:28
Speaker
Like that is my specialty is just is personal branding.
00:01:32
Speaker
How do we craft a story around somebody that's interesting, but authentic to who that person is.
00:01:38
Speaker
So do a lot of different things.
00:01:40
Speaker
But I think overall, the one title could just be entrepreneur.
00:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:01:46
Speaker
And Ryan, you and I met.
00:01:47
Speaker
So exactly.
00:01:48
Speaker
You've touched there on a couple of things that we're going to chat about today.
00:01:51
Speaker
But you and I met at the funeral conventions.
00:01:54
Speaker
So typically, I think it's usually the NFDA.
00:01:57
Speaker
I'm not sure if we've ever met at the ICCFA or one of those.
00:02:00
Speaker
But so the National Funeral Directors Association and here in the States.
00:02:05
Speaker
And what always fascinates me is Ryan is always a bit like his background in his shirt right now that he's wearing.
00:02:13
Speaker
is always colorful.
00:02:14
Speaker
You always stand out.
00:02:15
Speaker
You're, you know, you have a podcast, which I've been on, blessed to be on a couple of times, FN Nation with my good pal Jeff.
00:02:22
Speaker
And the two of you are always, you know, in some iconic pink or orange suit or, you know.
00:02:29
Speaker
And Ryan, let me describe for people who don't,
00:02:32
Speaker
you know, don't have visual here because we have this on podcast and we have it on YouTube.
00:02:35
Speaker
Brian is definitely somebody who stands out, probably similar to myself, but stands out at the conventions because, you know, you're neither
00:02:45
Speaker
I mean, you are white and male, we'll give you that, but you're not old and antiquated, which I'm not saying everybody out there is that's in the funeral space.
00:02:52
Speaker
But, you know, there's a lot of suits that go to these.
00:02:55
Speaker
And so I even know at this one just recently, I made headlines.
00:03:00
Speaker
I use that very lightly.
00:03:01
Speaker
I mean, headlines because on the first day, it was Breast Cancer Awareness Day and we were told to wear
The Role of Social Media in the Funeral Industry
00:03:07
Speaker
pink.
00:03:07
Speaker
obviously the glam reaper that's kind of our iconic image is pink and so i had this gorgeous pink suit that i needed to wear had an excuse to wear so i wore it and bloody hell like um so definitely standing out and like having a story and branding um is so important but that's a little bit of how me and ryan met and just to give you a flavor for those listening what he kind of um is you definitely stand out amongst
00:03:35
Speaker
a sea of suits um but you know social media and online presence in that space and i actually was only just having a conversation with this um it was on a previous episode actually with carrie the mortician who's doing super well on tick tock yes you know or all of all of the bits
00:03:52
Speaker
And we were just talking about how, well, A, how interesting that space has become because you've got so many of these people now who she actually coined or told me about this term that's been coined, funeral tainers.
00:04:05
Speaker
So people from the funeral space who are entertaining, I guess, Joe Public, as I call them.
00:04:10
Speaker
And I think they're doing great.
Marketing vs Advertising in the Funeral Industry
00:04:12
Speaker
You know, they're getting a conversation that's really, really difficult and they're putting it out there.
00:04:16
Speaker
But there's a lot of misinformation that's going around.
00:04:20
Speaker
So do you have any experience of that or like the clients that you work with and the funeral homes and, you know?
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I do.
00:04:28
Speaker
So I would look at Carrie a little bit too differently than some of the those funeral attainers that are out there because Carrie is actually ingrained in the profession.
00:04:40
Speaker
She's knowledgeable.
00:04:41
Speaker
She's truthful.
00:04:42
Speaker
She's very authentic to who she is.
00:04:46
Speaker
Then you have a group of funeral tainers where they've just found like, I can talk about the craziest things related to death that are very unpractical, but they grab a lot of attention and I'll just run with that.
00:04:58
Speaker
But that doesn't last long.
00:05:00
Speaker
That flame flares out after a while and the cream really rises to the crop.
00:05:04
Speaker
So like, I think that there is death is intriguing.
00:05:09
Speaker
And I don't mean death as the like the doom and gloom side of death.
00:05:14
Speaker
I think there are things associated with deaths that we're curious about because we don't talk about.
00:05:19
Speaker
We don't talk about death in a mainstream.
00:05:23
Speaker
And so when we're scrolling through TikTok, as as you say, just any Joe Blow and they go, oh, wait a second, on a on a.
00:05:31
Speaker
an erection on a dead body, what's that?
00:05:33
Speaker
Like that grabs somebody's attention.
00:05:35
Speaker
So there's those shock and awe things, but what I really look at with clients is, you know, we're marketing the funeral home brand to the consumer and engaging in a way that is not like shock and awe, but it is like, how do we get the story to be part of the fabric of that consumer to where it draws them in and they wanna use that funeral home
00:06:00
Speaker
and have a memorial service, have a full traditional funeral, regardless of disposition.
00:06:05
Speaker
Like, how do we put value back into what a funeral home actually does?
00:06:08
Speaker
And that's what I really appreciate about Carrie, because she touches on the things that are really actionable that consumers want to know about because there's their conversations that come up.
00:06:19
Speaker
That funeral homes don't dive into, because if it came from a funeral home through Facebook,
00:06:25
Speaker
through their funeral home Facebook page, and some of the things are a little bit on the edge of, you know, appropriate or not.
00:06:34
Speaker
We're going to turn a lot of people off because the dominant demographic that's engaging with a funeral and Facebook page is 55 and over.
00:06:40
Speaker
You go to Instagram and TikTok and even YouTube and you're getting a much younger demographic that is more curious about those things.
00:06:46
Speaker
So there's a good balance there.
00:06:49
Speaker
But I want to define marketing real quick.
00:06:51
Speaker
If we're going to go down the rabbit hole of kind of what I do from a social media perspective and marketing perspective,
00:06:58
Speaker
I think that we have mislabeled marketing and we and we look at marketing as like it's advertising.
Power of Personal Branding
00:07:04
Speaker
Advertising and marketing are two completely different things.
00:07:06
Speaker
Advertising, I'm selling something and it's a specific click here, buy this.
00:07:12
Speaker
It's a hard sell.
00:07:12
Speaker
That's advertising.
00:07:14
Speaker
Marketing isn't selling.
00:07:16
Speaker
Marketing is storytelling.
00:07:17
Speaker
And when we can create the right story that's authentic and it builds a relationship, then the selling aspect of it comes into play.
00:07:25
Speaker
And I think that's where
00:07:28
Speaker
if we look at death care in general, we look at any word of mouth as advertising and it needs to sell something.
00:07:36
Speaker
When what really works from a funeral home to a consumer is articulating the story, the credibility, the knowledge, the authenticity of not only the brand that's on the sign, but the personal brand.
00:07:49
Speaker
You and I have very strong personal brands.
00:07:52
Speaker
If we remove you from the glam reaper, the glam reaper doesn't exist.
00:07:57
Speaker
If we move me, remove me from Disrupt Media, sure, Disrupt could function, but it's gonna function in a completely different capacity than if I'm at the head of it and the face of it.
00:08:08
Speaker
Even at a funeral home level or I mean, screw it.
00:08:13
Speaker
It doesn't really matter if it's a funeral home, a car dealership, an insurance agent, a real estate agent or Nike.
00:08:20
Speaker
The personal brand will always be more valuable than the logo.
00:08:26
Speaker
And that's really what we try to get across with our funeral home clients is is you, Mr. Mrs. Funeral Director, the secretary as is as equally as important as you who own the business.
00:08:39
Speaker
But your personal brands in the community will always supersede whatever name is on the side or who owns the funeral home because people buy from people.
00:08:49
Speaker
If we market correctly, we build a good personal brand through story.
00:08:54
Speaker
Marketing is just storytelling.
00:08:56
Speaker
It's not selling.
00:08:57
Speaker
But the byproduct of building a relationship through authenticity and transparency is that there can be a transaction that feels natural.
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, no, I completely agree with you.
TikTok's Influence on Marketing Strategies
00:09:10
Speaker
It's and it's it's a very difficult.
00:09:13
Speaker
Actually, myself and Carrie were talking about Gary Vee and, you know, what he talks about and stuff like that.
00:09:19
Speaker
I personally and maybe you'll you'll think differently, but I personally feel like when he talks, yes, he makes an awful lot of sense.
00:09:28
Speaker
And, you know, he he's brilliant in what he's done and he's brilliant in the brand he has built up.
00:09:34
Speaker
But I feel that not everything he applies applies to the funeral business.
00:09:38
Speaker
Now, maybe I'm wrong with that.
00:09:40
Speaker
I don't know.
00:09:40
Speaker
But I completely agree with what you're saying about personal brand.
00:09:43
Speaker
And I do think it's why you go to your local funeral home.
00:09:47
Speaker
Yes, it's location, but it's also you've bought into that person, that family, whatever it is.
00:09:51
Speaker
It's not the bricks and mortar.
00:09:53
Speaker
But I feel like a lot of what sort of Gary Vee says is
00:09:56
Speaker
you know, that a funeral home should be on TikTok and should be on LinkedIn and stuff like that.
00:10:01
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:01
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:02
Speaker
To some of that.
00:10:02
Speaker
I just don't think it suits everybody.
00:10:04
Speaker
It's not everybody's brand.
00:10:05
Speaker
Like TikTok is it's a young person's platform.
00:10:10
Speaker
It's coming.
00:10:13
Speaker
I know it's becoming a search engine.
00:10:15
Speaker
It's becoming I know.
00:10:16
Speaker
I know.
00:10:17
Speaker
I know.
00:10:18
Speaker
It's like but I also feel that from my experience with funeral homes and funeral directors is, you know, some of them still facts.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
Well, I mean, we're we've been very successful running fax marketing campaigns, B2B.
00:10:32
Speaker
So like, yes, there is that.
00:10:35
Speaker
Now I would challenge you on TikTok is starting to skew a little bit more older from not necessarily a content creation standpoint, but a consumption standpoint.
00:10:46
Speaker
Like I have people in my family that I mean, at Christmas time this year,
00:10:52
Speaker
the question was asked multiple times, where did you find that?
00:10:55
Speaker
And a member of our family that is 64 years old or 63 years old replied, Oh, I got it through a Tik TOK ad.
00:11:03
Speaker
I got it through multiple times.
00:11:05
Speaker
So never has posted anything and never will post anything, but from a consumption standpoint, they're there.
00:11:12
Speaker
So does it make, then the question becomes, does it make sense for your local funeral home to be on Facebook?
00:11:17
Speaker
I don't think that,
00:11:20
Speaker
If you're not winning across Facebook or Instagram, does it make sense to leave those and focus on TikTok?
00:11:27
Speaker
Absolutely not.
00:11:28
Speaker
If you have a presence and you're engaging and you've built solid brand, does it make sense to have TikTok as part of TikTok?
00:11:35
Speaker
your marketing plan, a thousand percent.
00:11:38
Speaker
It's very hard to localize.
00:11:40
Speaker
There's things that you can do to help content stay more local, but it's hard to really keep it in that 10 to 15 mile radius.
00:11:48
Speaker
So it's not all going to be valuable, but I think the most valuable piece of a funeral home understanding
00:11:55
Speaker
TikTok is just understanding the platform and how somebody consumes content.
00:12:00
Speaker
Short form content is absolutely the game.
00:12:04
Speaker
That 90 second and under and even 45 second under is the game, but it's also put more value back in long
Perfect Marketing Strategy for 2023
00:12:13
Speaker
form content.
00:12:13
Speaker
So I put out a video earlier this week with the perfect marketing strategy for 2023 and
00:12:19
Speaker
I talked about short form content, long form content and then email marketing.
00:12:24
Speaker
Email marketing is is working again when we can be really valuable with what we're sending out.
00:12:30
Speaker
Long form content across YouTube is valuable because they can be chopped into micro content that now becomes short form content.
00:12:37
Speaker
And once you get somebody from short form to long form, getting them where you want them to go.
00:12:43
Speaker
isn't difficult.
00:12:44
Speaker
And so even in a funeral home sense, that works.
00:12:47
Speaker
You can create short form content.
00:12:49
Speaker
Let's say it is a minute on one benefit of pre-planning that now goes back to a long form piece of content.
00:12:57
Speaker
And when I say long form, three to five minutes,
00:13:00
Speaker
long form piece of content where it doesn't have to be hour long content or 45 minutes.
00:13:05
Speaker
I mean, long form content can be three to five minutes long.
00:13:08
Speaker
Now it's the full video of why pre needs important, where that can then be funneled into a white paper or something where you can capture a lead.
00:13:17
Speaker
So there is a way if funeral homes want to really fully embrace marketing the right way across social.
00:13:23
Speaker
But still, the number one platform for a funeral home to be on and engaging is going to be Facebook.
00:13:31
Speaker
But all brands need to realize whether they're a funeral home or cemetery or whatever you and I even want.
00:13:41
Speaker
who we used to look at as competitors aren't competitors anymore.
00:13:44
Speaker
Like a funeral home is not competing for attention with just the funeral home down the street or around the corner.
00:13:51
Speaker
You know, the five funeral homes in your town, those aren't your only competitors anymore.
00:13:55
Speaker
You are literally competing against every other single brand that is trying to reach the same consumer you're trying to reach.
00:14:01
Speaker
So,
00:14:02
Speaker
Funeral homes compete with Nike and Under Armour and all of these huge brands that have billions of dollars to spend on social.
00:14:10
Speaker
Your content has to be really, really good and it has to be valuable.
00:14:15
Speaker
It doesn't make sense to just put content out anymore for the sake of getting a post out.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, and that's interesting as well because we touched on it a little bit with Carrie.
00:14:25
Speaker
I'm not sure if it was in the recorded episode or chat after because I always seem to tend to chat after off camera.
00:14:33
Speaker
But we were talking about that as to where she's sort of seeing the most results and that's vastly changed for her.
00:14:40
Speaker
Like she said, YouTube was huge for her and now it's kind of hit a plateau for her and a lot of other issues.
00:14:47
Speaker
influencers or educators or whoever we want to title them but you know monetary wise and she just kind of she said for what she's for the content that she's putting out there and the effort she's putting in she's kind of not really seeing reaping the rewards and I think that that's
00:15:03
Speaker
Yes, listen, I have a marketing degree, diploma, you know, I've digital communications.
00:15:08
Speaker
I feel like I've all these.
00:15:09
Speaker
But what's funny to me is how it evolves, though, Ryan, like what I learned, what I did and what I was so brilliant at, you know, 10 years later, I haven't a clue.
00:15:21
Speaker
You know, it just evolves every year.
00:15:23
Speaker
And I think that's where.
00:15:25
Speaker
it becomes I can understand how overwhelming it can be.
00:15:27
Speaker
So I can understand how a funeral director who's maybe twice my age or whatever will actually, you know, that probably be difficult, but I'm getting older than I can't stop.
00:15:35
Speaker
I can't say that anymore.
00:15:37
Speaker
But, you know, that it must be so overwhelming for them that it's like, how do we, you know, I,
00:15:43
Speaker
Some of them hardly even have a website and getting them to that stage is, you know, obviously super important.
00:15:49
Speaker
But having this online presence.
00:15:50
Speaker
So I think that the likes of Carrie and as you said, like she's coming from she works in the industry.
00:15:55
Speaker
She's she's got the background.
00:15:56
Speaker
She's doing it day to day.
00:15:58
Speaker
And she was even saying how, you know, there's days she can't post because she's so busy working, you know, and and.
00:16:05
Speaker
But and then, you know, you do wonder, she's putting out all this great content.
00:16:10
Speaker
She's educated.
00:16:11
Speaker
But then you've got these other people who, you know, according to her, are pre mortuary school themselves.
00:16:17
Speaker
Like they're only kind of they're dabbling in things and they're putting out this content, but they're going maybe viral because they're saying sensational things.
00:16:24
Speaker
And you're right.
00:16:25
Speaker
Like he's fighting against them as well as everything else.
00:16:28
Speaker
It's.
00:16:29
Speaker
It's overwhelming.
00:16:30
Speaker
I mean, I'm overwhelmed.
00:16:33
Speaker
The cream rises to the top eventually.
00:16:35
Speaker
Like that will fizzle out.
00:16:37
Speaker
That person's going to get tired of it.
00:16:39
Speaker
They're going to go into a full-time job where they're not going to be able to create that content because the employer is not going to allow it.
00:16:44
Speaker
Like there's going to be...
00:16:46
Speaker
That'll cycle through.
00:16:48
Speaker
And to your point, though, like you have all these degrees in marketing and all this education.
00:16:52
Speaker
I'm going to argue that it isn't that much different.
00:16:55
Speaker
It changes.
00:16:56
Speaker
It's different.
00:16:56
Speaker
The platforms become different.
00:16:58
Speaker
But at the core, the thing that still matters the most is authenticity and relationship from an actual exchange of money.
00:17:07
Speaker
We can get a lot of views.
00:17:08
Speaker
You and I could create content and say things separately on our own content that will be sensationalized and they'll get a lot of views.
00:17:17
Speaker
We may get a few bucks from a platform because of the amount of views, but at the end of the day, you're not really building a business.
00:17:24
Speaker
And that's why it's become so hard for a lot of influencers that built these great big followings on YouTube.
00:17:30
Speaker
It's because the attention span for us to sit and watch a 30 minute vlog just isn't there.
00:17:36
Speaker
You mentioned Gary Vee.
00:17:36
Speaker
Let's go to what Gary Vee was putting out 20 to 30 minute vlogs every single day.
00:17:42
Speaker
Now daily V's are three to four minutes long and that's considered long form content.
00:17:47
Speaker
And so the platforms adjust, but at the core of what connects people is
00:17:54
Speaker
the same things still apply.
00:17:56
Speaker
And I usually give this example to a funeral home because the average age of a funeral homeowner right now
Comparing Old School and Modern Marketing
00:18:03
Speaker
is 65.
00:18:03
Speaker
Now over the next five years will be the largest turnover of an older generation to a younger generation.
00:18:10
Speaker
So that age is gonna come down some of an owner, which is gonna vastly change how brands have to market and things of that nature.
00:18:21
Speaker
I always say that marketing now is old school marketing, but in a new shiny box.
00:18:26
Speaker
The same way that when my grandmother would go to the IGA in the local community and every Wednesday at 10 a.m.
00:18:33
Speaker
she would show up and the butcher had a hand bone ready for her and knew exactly what she was coming for, when she was coming and what she needed, had it ready.
00:18:41
Speaker
She went in, picked it up and left.
00:18:43
Speaker
We're getting back to that and marketing and the marketers and the brands that do really, really well are the brands that can speak directly to me like they are sitting right beside me.
00:18:56
Speaker
And that takes knowing the consumer, it takes authenticity from the brand and it takes relationship building through storytelling.
00:19:04
Speaker
And funeral homes can easily do that because they all have this generational story.
00:19:09
Speaker
They all have their own story.
00:19:11
Speaker
It's 80% of the business that they get is relational anyways.
00:19:16
Speaker
So that just needs to be an extension of how they market.
00:19:19
Speaker
And then they're hitting a local audience that already has an understanding of who they are.
00:19:24
Speaker
It's just putting the right content in front of them to keep them engaged.
00:19:28
Speaker
And that's not grief and inspirational quotes and flower images that say, you know, happy, Merry Christmas, whatever.
00:19:37
Speaker
It's like this is why we're different.
00:19:39
Speaker
These are the things that can be done.
00:19:42
Speaker
This or that content.
00:19:43
Speaker
You wanna make viral content for a funeral home?
00:19:45
Speaker
Great, let's start doing this or that with cremation urns, or do you want cremated remains back in this container, or do you want these really pretty parting stones?
00:19:55
Speaker
What do you want?
00:19:55
Speaker
This or that?
00:19:56
Speaker
That's easy content to make that can take three seconds, no editing, but it engages the consumer.
00:20:02
Speaker
And now there's curiosity, what are these rocks?
00:20:04
Speaker
Now you can create a longer form piece that relates back to the rocks that everybody's commenting on.
00:20:08
Speaker
Like, wait a second, how are those rocks, cremated remains?
00:20:12
Speaker
Now you start a conversation, you answer a question, you build a relationship.
00:20:16
Speaker
Marketing isn't really that complicated.
00:20:18
Speaker
It's just getting...
00:20:20
Speaker
business owners to understand that it's not about let's put this content out.
00:20:25
Speaker
Let's have somebody click a button and let's sell something.
00:20:28
Speaker
If it's water, yes.
00:20:30
Speaker
But even now, I want to know who's making the water and what's the bigger mission of the water company, right?
00:20:35
Speaker
Like we care a little bit more about where our money goes.
00:20:37
Speaker
So the authenticity and the relationship in that transparency and content is the real kicker, which isn't much different than what you learned
00:20:47
Speaker
when you got your degrees, they're just positioned in different boxes.
00:20:51
Speaker
And the way that we storytell is different than how we used to with an advertorial or something along those lines.
Adapting to Modern Consumer Habits with New Platforms
00:20:58
Speaker
And that understanding
00:21:01
Speaker
is really gonna be the key for business owners going forward, whether it's a funeral home, crematory, cemetery, it doesn't matter.
00:21:07
Speaker
The value of them being on TikTok now is not that they're going to get a lot of business from it, but they're understanding how to use the platform and the way that people digest content because it's all built off of what exists now.
00:21:20
Speaker
What comes next will be built off of what's happening now.
00:21:23
Speaker
Like if we look at Be Real,
00:21:25
Speaker
Be Real exploded.
00:21:27
Speaker
Now it's it's dying down because there's not enough content to keep us connected and consume.
00:21:32
Speaker
The reason TikTok rocks is because their algorithm is so good that I only see content I care about 95 percent of the time and I'll stay there for hours just mindlessly scrolling.
00:21:43
Speaker
But our attention spans are only going to be three to five seconds on a piece of content most of the time.
00:21:49
Speaker
So.
00:21:51
Speaker
be real exploded because it was just that.
00:21:54
Speaker
Like, I'm going to look at it once a day.
00:21:56
Speaker
I'm going to see what everybody posted and then I'm going to go on about my day and it doesn't suck all my time.
00:22:00
Speaker
So it's just understanding human behavior.
00:22:04
Speaker
And then the next thing that comes will be built off of what existing.
00:22:08
Speaker
I mean, Facebook was first and then all these things have been built around the things that worked on Facebook and Facebook.
00:22:14
Speaker
you know, just understanding how to use that platform is, is the real key, whether they're creating there or not, they should definitely be there to consume.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:25
Speaker
It's, it's funny because,
00:22:26
Speaker
As you were talking there, I was laughing because I said to you literally before we started recording was that I usually try and keep it to around 20 to 30 minutes.
Podcast Length and Audience Engagement
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, I don't.
00:22:36
Speaker
Attention span is is short.
00:22:38
Speaker
And it's funny because some of my podcast episodes have gone on just because of the conversation.
00:22:42
Speaker
It's gone on 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, I think even.
00:22:46
Speaker
So I've I've split them up into bite size.
00:22:48
Speaker
And for me.
00:22:50
Speaker
And part of why I do that, Ryan, is because for me, I'm like, I will watch 20 minutes of video.
00:22:55
Speaker
And then unless you were talking about something absolutely blowing my mind, that's, you know, and even beyond the three minutes, like, and I know the way I'm consuming my social media, it's boring, move on.
00:23:07
Speaker
And it's just TikTok is like the devil, though, it's hell.
00:23:11
Speaker
The worst thing you can do is log on to that when you're about to go to sleep.
00:23:15
Speaker
And then you're like an hourly, you know, that guy that comes up and he's like, take a snack, drink a
00:23:20
Speaker
that's right you've been throwing too long that's genius by the way that they do that absolute genius because it makes you laugh at yourself and go oh my god I've done it but tell me and actually there was lots of nuggets in what you were kind of saying there Ryan that obviously lead to you're obviously very interested in sort of the human psych and what makes us do things and why and how so that's obviously brought you into the life coaching thing now how long have you been involved with that I think your wife is involved as well
00:23:48
Speaker
Yeah, so my wife and I do life coaching and she coaches women and I coach a lot of men more because I can relate.
00:23:57
Speaker
It makes sense.
00:23:59
Speaker
I've had a life coach for six years and I've been life coaching for about two years.
00:24:06
Speaker
And for me, when I look at life and wanting to be the best at what I do, if I want to get better and lower my handicap in golf, I hire a swing coach.
00:24:18
Speaker
If I want to get healthy, I hire a health coach, I hire a trainer, I hire a nutritionist.
00:24:23
Speaker
We hire somebody to make our food.
00:24:25
Speaker
Like we get coaches for all of these different things.
00:24:28
Speaker
You know, you want to get you want to be better at marketing.
00:24:31
Speaker
You hire a company to help educate you on how to market.
00:24:33
Speaker
You want to get better at podcasting.
00:24:35
Speaker
You probably hired somebody to help you figure it out or you watch the video like we get coaches.
Ryan's Journey into Life Coaching
00:24:40
Speaker
for everything.
00:24:41
Speaker
But when it comes to actually like building our life and the things that we want and our deepest desires, like, ah, no, I I'll do it on my own.
00:24:50
Speaker
And things don't work well that way.
00:24:53
Speaker
Um, so when I got a life coach, I thought it was a sham.
00:24:57
Speaker
I only hired the guy because we were, we had known each other, had a lot of respect for him.
00:25:03
Speaker
Um, um,
00:25:03
Speaker
And he reached out to me and said, Hey, I'm putting this thing together.
00:25:06
Speaker
It's, it's a mastermind.
00:25:07
Speaker
I'm like, no pump the brakes.
00:25:08
Speaker
Like to me, mastermind means like, I'm going to pay you for a six week course.
00:25:12
Speaker
And then at the end of it, I get a beach house and a Ferrari.
00:25:14
Speaker
And I think that that's crap and that's not going to work.
00:25:16
Speaker
And so, you know, he's like, no, like this is different.
00:25:20
Speaker
It's going to be a group of entrepreneurial Christian men.
00:25:22
Speaker
We're going to challenge each other.
00:25:23
Speaker
We're going to go deep on, you know, some heart issues and really understand how the mind impacts the things that we do on a daily basis.
00:25:31
Speaker
And,
00:25:32
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, okay, whatever, man.
00:25:33
Speaker
I can do it on my own.
00:25:35
Speaker
I had this perception that an entrepreneur is this lone ranger.
00:25:39
Speaker
And they are because we just think differently.
00:25:41
Speaker
Naturally, we become alone because we want different things out of life than most people.
00:25:46
Speaker
And that's the part of me that I really wanted to connect with and understand, like, why am I wired this way?
00:25:51
Speaker
And life coaching helped me understand that and then apply these things to all areas of my life.
00:25:57
Speaker
My business grows.
00:25:58
Speaker
My team grows.
00:25:59
Speaker
I'm a better leader.
00:26:00
Speaker
I'm a better husband.
00:26:01
Speaker
I'm a better father.
00:26:02
Speaker
I'm a better faith leader.
00:26:05
Speaker
All of these things get better because the core of me is getting stronger and I really understand what makes me tick and what my values are.
00:26:14
Speaker
I look at my influence in death care and that has been, there's so much of that
00:26:22
Speaker
that mental state that gets worn down in death care because funeral professionals are dealing with the worst day of somebody's life every single day they show up.
00:26:30
Speaker
And they're so giving and they're so serving that they never take time to be selfish.
00:26:36
Speaker
And I think sometimes the best thing that we can give the people that we love is to be a little bit selfish and figure out how we can show up better.
00:26:44
Speaker
And so my thing with a funeral director is, you know, right now,
00:26:47
Speaker
You may be showing up as a C. What happens to your business if you show up as an A every day because you know what makes you tick and why you want to do what you do and you create freedom and you create space and time.
00:26:59
Speaker
So that's been a big passion of mine.
00:27:01
Speaker
And, you know, probably a year ago.
Announcement of Uncommon Summit Event
00:27:05
Speaker
got laid on my heart and my wife's heart to do a live event.
00:27:09
Speaker
And we've never done a live event that is part personal development and part marketing.
00:27:16
Speaker
We're both passionate at both.
00:27:18
Speaker
She runs operations for all of our companies and is very ingrained in me being able to do what I do is because she can do what she does.
00:27:28
Speaker
And so we work well in that capacity.
00:27:31
Speaker
And so we wanted to do a live event that was
00:27:34
Speaker
You know, one day personal development and then the next day marketing, because personal development, you're really understanding like what makes you tick and you're getting people motivated and riled up and they've got a story and their story is important and they're uncommon and they're unique.
00:27:46
Speaker
Like we're all designed with this specific purpose.
00:27:48
Speaker
And when you can uncover that now, it's about sharing that message with the world.
00:27:53
Speaker
How do you do that?
00:27:54
Speaker
How do you create a brand?
00:27:55
Speaker
How do you.
00:27:56
Speaker
What does personal branding even mean?
00:27:58
Speaker
How do you start just creating content and documenting?
00:28:01
Speaker
If I'm uncomfortable holding a phone up selfie style, how do I get comfortable with it?
00:28:05
Speaker
So, you know, we're going to take a day to really uncover and make people go a little bit deeper in what their unique God given skill set is that really makes them uncommon because we all have that thing.
00:28:18
Speaker
And then how do you deploy that into the world?
00:28:21
Speaker
And that would be the next day with with some marketing and branding conversation.
00:28:24
Speaker
So
00:28:25
Speaker
It's in Scottsdale, Arizona, March 1st through 3rd.
00:28:28
Speaker
Well, Phoenix, Arizona.
00:28:30
Speaker
It's on the other side of the street.
00:28:31
Speaker
The venue is from the Scottsdale zip code.
00:28:34
Speaker
So I'm excited about it.
00:28:36
Speaker
Should be really cool.
00:28:37
Speaker
It's going to be a small, intimate event.
00:28:38
Speaker
We're capping it at 25 people.
00:28:40
Speaker
We have 10 seats left.
00:28:41
Speaker
So I don't know when this is going to air.
00:28:43
Speaker
But if anybody wants information, you can go to UncommonSummit.com.
00:28:48
Speaker
But common is spelled with a K because if we're going to use the word uncommon, why would we use a C?
00:28:53
Speaker
Because that's common.
00:28:56
Speaker
I love it.
00:28:57
Speaker
Well, hopefully it airs before then.
00:28:59
Speaker
And if not, at least then whoever hears about this can check back in with whoever was at it and hear all about it.
00:29:08
Speaker
Fair play to you, Ryan.
00:29:09
Speaker
You're absolutely, you're, as I said, you stand out.
00:29:12
Speaker
You're, you know, you never back down.
00:29:14
Speaker
You're, you know, like,
00:29:17
Speaker
everything about you is just constantly propelling forward.
00:29:20
Speaker
And I love that your positive energy, you know, you, you stand out at the funeral conventions and it's not many people that do it, but even like online and anytime I chatted to you, you're always just open and willing and positive.
00:29:31
Speaker
And it's, you know, never, never negative Nancy, you know, attitude and stuff like that.
00:29:36
Speaker
So that's, that's admirable.
00:29:38
Speaker
And, um, you know, it really is.
00:29:40
Speaker
And also I will say it must be incredibly, um,
00:29:45
Speaker
Hard, I would have said, but you kind of make it sound easy to have to work with your wife, but in your businesses and now you're doing a conference together.
00:29:53
Speaker
So that has challenges.
00:29:58
Speaker
It is difficult.
00:29:58
Speaker
It takes a lot of intentionality.
00:30:00
Speaker
It takes a lot of work.
00:30:01
Speaker
It takes a lot of understanding what her lane is and what my lane is.
00:30:05
Speaker
And that's that's really the key.
00:30:07
Speaker
We're writing a book called Uncommon Alignment.
00:30:09
Speaker
And it's on how to.
00:30:13
Speaker
When you can have a common goal that fixes, not fixes, but it allows you to get an alignment of what each other's purpose is and how we're both going to the same thing, but we do it in massively different ways.
00:30:29
Speaker
We are massive.
00:30:30
Speaker
We are probably complete opposites.
00:30:34
Speaker
in most everything.
00:30:35
Speaker
So how do we leverage those two things together?
00:30:38
Speaker
So it is difficult, but it is insanely rewarding at the same time.
00:30:44
Speaker
And it works.
00:30:45
Speaker
That's it.
00:30:47
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us.
00:30:48
Speaker
And hopefully we'll have you on again soon, maybe at one of the conventions or something like that.
00:30:52
Speaker
But thank you.
00:30:52
Speaker
Thank you.
00:30:53
Speaker
We're going to leave all the links for everything Ryan was talking about underneath the video and on the podcast.
00:30:58
Speaker
And thank you so much.
00:31:09
Speaker
So that was our episode with Ryan.
00:31:11
Speaker
What do you think?
00:31:12
Speaker
Do you agree with him on what he was saying?
00:31:14
Speaker
It can be difficult, definitely marketing funeral homes and the funeral business,
00:31:19
Speaker
And if you are a non-funeral person, I would love to know what you think about how funeral businesses market themselves.
00:31:26
Speaker
Do you think it's good?
00:31:27
Speaker
Do you think it's bad?
00:31:29
Speaker
I know of some terrible stories and I know some really, really positive ones.
00:31:34
Speaker
So we'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter.
00:31:37
Speaker
So email us glamreaperpodcast at gmail.com and we look forward to hearing from you.