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The Rise of Virtual Funerals: Navigating Loss in the Digital Age
5 Plays11 months ago
In this episode of The Glam Reaper Podcast, Jennifer sits down with Mandy Benoualid, co-founder of TalkDeath and Keeper.
Mandy shares her journey of recognizing a need for educational content in the death care industry, which led to the creation of TalkDeath and their online memorial provider company Keeper.
Jennifer and Mandy conversed about the impact of social media on death and grieving, normalizing conversations around death. They touch upon their social media presence across various platforms and their strategies for engaging with their audience. They talk about the almost mandatory live streaming that is a growing trend in the funeral space.
Tune in for a fascinating exploration of unconventional approaches to death and grieving, along with the impact of social media on the funeral industry!
Key Topics:
-Crafting Heartfelt Online Memorials
-Saying Goodbye in the Digital Age
-Streamlining Farewell Services Online
-Different Perspectives on Death and Healing
Quotes From The Episode:
It's not just black and white ….. It's also talking about who actually has access to a good death.
-Mandy Benoualid
I think at the end of the day, what anybody in this space on social media is trying to do is have the community talk about it, like literally talk about death.
-Jennifer Muldowney
Timestamp:
[00:00] Podcast Intro
[00:59] Mandy discussed how Talk Death originated from her work at Keeper.
[03:21] Mandy narrated how Talk Death is primarily supported by Keeper.
[05:30] Mandy explained the inception of Keeper Memorials in 2013.
[07:58] Mandy described Keeper Memorials as a modern online platform.
[09:44] Mandy outlined how Keeper Memorials offers a range of services.
[12:20] Mandy elaborates on how Keeper Memorials experienced significant growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[15:30] Jennifer and Mandy highlight the increasing trend of hybrid funeral services.
[18:40] Jennifer and Mandy comment on the prevalence of live-streaming companies specializing in funeral services.
[23:57] Mandy shared insights into Talk Death's community engagement efforts.
[26:36] Jennifer delves into the importance of open conversations about death and the diverse content available for different audiences.
[31:36] Outro
Connect with Mandy Benoualin:
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/mandy-benoualid
Website - https://www.talkdeath.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/talkdeathdaily/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/TalkDeathDaily
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 -
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Transcript
Rethinking Death: Access and Dignity
00:00:00
Speaker
just try to help folks try to see things a little differently when it comes to death and dying.
00:00:05
Speaker
It's not just black and white about you have a funeral.
00:00:07
Speaker
It's also talking about, you know, who actually has access to a good death.
Introducing Mandy: Innovator in the Death Space
00:00:24
Speaker
Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm your host, Jennifer Muldowney.
00:00:30
Speaker
And on today's episode, I have the gorgeous Mandy, who has not one but two businesses in the death space.
00:00:37
Speaker
So I'm really looking forward to getting into this with her.
00:00:40
Speaker
And it's just to sum it all up, I guess we're going to talk death daily.
00:00:43
Speaker
So Mandy, welcome.
00:00:45
Speaker
Welcome to the show.
00:00:45
Speaker
Thanks so much for having me.
00:00:47
Speaker
So tell me you have, well, we'll start off with, I guess, the main business, right?
00:00:54
Speaker
Tell us how you got into that.
00:00:55
Speaker
I mean, it's such an incredible resource for people who I think even if you're in the funeral space or you're going through bereavement yourself, I think it's such a great resource.
00:01:04
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The website, it's just got so much on it.
00:01:07
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You know, I just saw recently there, there
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Ernest Becker.
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And, you know, so there's just, there's just so much.
00:01:13
Speaker
And I feel like whether you're coming into this as a student coming into a funeral, or if you've been in this for decades or centuries, sometimes, I think you can learn something from what you do.
00:01:23
Speaker
But tell us, how did this all get started?
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
The Evolution of Talk Death
00:01:26
Speaker
So I think the second one is, yeah, talkdeath.com.
00:01:29
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So the ethos behind Talk Death and how it really started was actually because of the other company that I work in, which is called Heat
00:01:40
Speaker
And we started with Keeper just writing blogs, mostly, I would say even like for marketing purposes, things like that.
00:01:48
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And that's when I started to really dive into the world of Jeff Care and the industry, which professionals don't like calling it that, but that's essentially what it is.
00:01:58
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I became really fascinated by some of the subjects and what I was learning about.
00:02:04
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And it actually got to the point where folks started to
00:02:07
Speaker
recognize us more for our content and not even for our product.
00:02:11
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And so we were also doing a video series, a web series where we were interviewing professionals in the space that we called Hashtag Talk Den.
00:02:22
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And the idea was that members of the public, so it was a lot of like Twitter followers at the time,
00:02:27
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that would send us questions that they would want answered by these individuals.
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And we would do these video interviews with folk.
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And those are awesome.
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And I wish we could keep doing them.
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My capacity's definitely reduced recently.
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And so eventually we said, you know, there's a very large audience for what we're talking about.
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People are really interested.
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And so we allowed it to branch off and give it its own name, TalkDeath.
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And that's where we kind of separated it from Keeper.
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And, you know, our first article we wrote was in
00:02:55
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beginning of 2014 so it's uh 10 years now it's crazy and it's I mean you have thousands and thousands of followers uh and it's I mean it's interesting that you say that about it you know that it became more about the content and less about the product because that's almost like marketing doing so well like it's outdone itself but it's not doing it in the the primary sort of goal I guess
00:03:20
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Have you, as a result of that, have you kind of developed new products or services kind of from what it ended up becoming?
00:03:29
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And also, I mean, I'm totally hearing you on the capacity because I know myself, it can be a lot trying to do all things to everyone and sort of give fans, quote unquote, what they want, but also survive.
00:03:43
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You know, it is a business.
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It is an industry, you know.
00:03:46
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Yeah, I mean, to be honest, TalkDeath doesn't really drive any revenue.
00:03:50
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Luckily, it's supported by Keeper, but we do sell merch.
00:03:55
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We, for a while, started dabbling in the idea of doing sponsored posts where a company, an organization would pay us to write content and then publish it, and it would be sort of advertorial, but not really.
00:04:11
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And it's still maybe a market we may decide...
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to reach for.
00:04:16
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But as soon as money is behind something, it takes away from the authenticity and from the bias or lack of in content.
00:04:25
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And I think that that's where folks really appreciate the work that we do is we are folks in the community writing it for folks in the community.
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And we've luckily been able to work with really wonderful guest writers from really all over the world.
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We did a series at the end of last year where we brought in
00:04:46
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We hired writers from India and the Philippines and Korea and really everywhere to just talk about certain practices that they do in their culture, death practices.
Global Perspectives on Death Practices
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And again, it wasn't to drive revenue.
00:05:01
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It was just for our own curiosity and to kind of advance this mission.
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of education.
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It's brilliant what you're doing, honestly.
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And I love that it comes from the heart like it genuinely does.
00:05:14
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I mean, I've had one or two people suggest to monetize this podcast, like exactly as you said, but I feel like
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I think, you know, you and I in some ways are kindred spirits because I just feel like the second something is monetized and I can't stand when I listen to a podcast, that first bit where it's like, and we're sponsored by blah, blah, blah, blah.
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It's just like gobbledygook.
00:05:34
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And it's like, it's like when over here, when you hear about some medicine that they've released and then they tell you about all the side effects really fast.
Keeper Memorials: Preserving Memories in the Digital Age
00:05:42
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And so like, yeah, I think unless you find something that really aligns with you, and I guess for you, that's your own company, which is Keeper Memorials, right?
00:05:51
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So tell us a little bit more about that.
00:05:52
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That's online memorials effectively, right?
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Yeah, exactly.
00:05:56
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So Keeper Memorials is a company we started in 2013.
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So just before top death.
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And the ethos behind it when we first started was what if you could walk around the cemetery and learn about all the stories there?
00:06:08
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And this was always something that fascinated me.
00:06:10
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I've always been a tapophile.
00:06:12
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And it made us realize, I mean, I had a few losses that happened at the time and made me realize that Facebook and sort of our traditional, well, not traditional, but our current methods at the time of
00:06:24
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storing someone's photos and their legacy and really just being able to reach out to folks and share it was pretty limiting.
00:06:31
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And so we came up with a platform that allows families to just store all their loved ones memories and photos and create events that they could organize through there and kind of just take it outside of that social media space.
00:06:43
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Because it really, you know, Facebook is really a space for the living.
00:06:46
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And I'm sure many of us today, because the amount of deceased Facebook users is extremely high,
00:06:52
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We've all had that experience, many of us, that someone close to us has passed away and their page is kind of frozen in time.
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And sometimes it's nice to go back to, but it's just like a strange world to be in.
00:07:06
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And I think also a lot of people don't trust Facebook with their information anymore, which is understandable.
00:07:11
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And so for us, we just wanted to create a safe space for families that's like dedicated to almost like the same idea of the pilgrimage of when you're going to a cemetery, that you're going there and you're taking that moment to remember and
00:07:22
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about your person and it's really about your community as well.
00:07:27
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So everyone has something, whether it's a memory or a photograph or a video, a story of someone that's passed away.
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When you're able to take all those different pieces and put it together in one nice, beautiful place,
00:07:43
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We call it like the quilt effect.
00:07:45
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And it just creates this whole story and this whole picture.
00:07:48
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And just that process is we found this really helpful to families in the grieving process.
00:07:53
Speaker
So just so I understand it or the listeners understand it.
00:07:58
Speaker
So it is it a memorial page and and or live streaming of the actual event?
00:08:05
Speaker
Is it a little bit of everything or because I know there's there's so many similar products in the space that I'm always sort of trying to sort of differentiate.
00:08:14
Speaker
OK, who does what?
00:08:15
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Because you've got the launch of that app chapter now is a new one.
00:08:19
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I don't know if you've heard of that or I'm not even saying that right.
00:08:22
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I'm not sure.
00:08:22
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Chapter, I think.
00:08:23
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Yeah, I think so.
00:08:24
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Yeah.
00:08:24
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So, I mean, we started out really as a baseline online memorial site.
00:08:28
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And when we first started, all the other sites out there were really kind of old school.
00:08:33
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Like they kind of looked like they came out of the 90s, which a lot of them did.
00:08:36
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And so we were one of the first sort of like more modern pages.
00:08:40
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And so, yes, the idea is that families go to our site, they create a page.
00:08:44
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It's kind of like a mini website that's dedicated to their loved ones.
00:08:47
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And they put photos, videos.
00:08:49
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We have a whole family tree and genealogy section, which a lot of folks don't have.
00:08:53
Speaker
And then only in 2020 or 2021, we started doing a separate service, which is connected to our online memorials, but it's more service-driven, meaning that we do virtual funerals.
00:09:08
Speaker
And so we have a team of individuals.
00:09:10
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They're death doulas, they're celebrants.
00:09:12
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And they actually put together an online or rather a virtual funeral for someone, a celebration of life memorial service.
00:09:20
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And they do it from A to Z. So they will help you fully plan it.
00:09:24
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What kind of words do you want said?
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Who would you like to speak?
00:09:28
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Who do you want to be there?
00:09:29
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We create the invitations and then we host it and we welcome people to it.
00:09:34
Speaker
So we're kind of like the master of services for that.
00:09:37
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And then we use the Keeper app to share the photos, to then show the live stream of it, to plan the event.
00:09:42
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We use the app for that as well.
00:09:44
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So that's just kind of a separate service that we offer, but it's all under the Keeper umbrella.
00:09:49
Speaker
Gotcha, gotcha.
00:09:50
Speaker
So it's one page that a family can come along and sort of have their, the photos, the memories, the genealogy thing, which I think is very cool.
00:10:01
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And they can have the funeral or not.
00:10:03
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If they're having it in a physical space, they'd have it in a physical space and maybe they put up a recording.
00:10:08
Speaker
Is that...
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of folks will do that as well.
00:10:11
Speaker
And we also work directly with funeral homes and cemeteries.
00:10:14
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And so they use our solution as sort of like their ovus that they plug into their website.
00:10:20
Speaker
And so some families still, most funeral homes in North America today will tend to give you some type of a basic page where you can just have
00:10:29
Speaker
More of like a death notice where it's a very simple obituary and maybe a single photograph of the individual.
The Rise of Virtual and Hybrid Funerals
00:10:36
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And so families come to us because they want to take that a step further.
00:10:40
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They find that that doesn't really represent their loved one enough.
00:10:43
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And the reality today is that families are just so...
00:10:47
Speaker
separated and we're often living in different cities in different countries all the time and we also the younger you are now you don't really have any physical photo books and so our way of sharing memories with each other is with photos and videos and instead of putting it in a group chat or on like whatsapp or just like putting on a shared drive it's just a simpler way for families to
00:11:14
Speaker
to be able to connect essentially.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:16
Speaker
And is there, is it, do you become a member of Keeper Memorial or do you, is it, is it a one-time fee and is there different levels or how does that work?
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:27
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So we actually first started out doing everything totally for free and we still have a free level.
00:11:35
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And that free level is still really what some families need.
00:11:38
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It has a certain amount of storage space, some of the basic features, you know, the tribute section where the community can leave their messages.
00:11:47
Speaker
And then we have something called Keeper Plus, and that's a one-time fee for a lifetime, and it stays up.
00:11:52
Speaker
page stays up forever.
00:11:54
Speaker
And you just have access to more storage and to more advanced features, essentially.
00:11:58
Speaker
And so you have to sign up to be able to create it because that becomes like your login so that you can access it in the future.
00:12:05
Speaker
But what I like about ours, and a lot of the things that we choose to do is just based on personal preferences.
00:12:11
Speaker
And I think most people hate that if you want to leave a comment on a blog or on something.
00:12:15
Speaker
you need to like sign up and create an account.
00:12:17
Speaker
And we're so sick of creating accounts.
00:12:20
Speaker
Yes.
00:12:20
Speaker
So we don't require you to create an account.
00:12:22
Speaker
We just take your, we ask for your e-ball for security purposes and we don't like put you on mailing lists or anything.
00:12:28
Speaker
We just do so that the family has your contact info and we kind of make it pretty easy for folks.
00:12:34
Speaker
Oh, that's good.
00:12:35
Speaker
And do you, so, okay, so that's Keeper Memorial.
00:12:38
Speaker
And so that started a year before and I would imagine took off probably quite well during COVID.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, we definitely had quite a big boost during COVID.
00:12:49
Speaker
And that's also when we brought in our virtual funeral services.
00:12:53
Speaker
But families were relying a lot more on remote forms of communication and connection.
00:12:59
Speaker
And also because funeral homes were not able to do any kinds of services for a long time, depending on where you work.
00:13:07
Speaker
in the world or in North America.
00:13:09
Speaker
And we saw that it really hit home and especially for folks who have family that live in different countries.
00:13:15
Speaker
So we did a lot of cross border services where we would have family, like we did like quite a few like Filipino families who like had a lot of family in the US and in Canada.
00:13:28
Speaker
And yeah, I think traditionally, you
00:13:31
Speaker
because those families were so close, like they would have actually traveled back home for a like one's funeral and they just weren't able to.
00:13:38
Speaker
And so that was a big part of our goal was try to bring people together when it kind of felt impossible.
00:13:45
Speaker
And I mean, it all actually started because I, my grandmother passed away like right at the beginning of COVID from COVID.
00:13:51
Speaker
And we are similar, like we're a family that
00:13:54
Speaker
We're all kind of in different cities in Canada and the US and some of us are in Europe.
00:13:59
Speaker
And we tend to gather when someone close to us dies and we couldn't do that.
00:14:04
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And I was like, you know, let's just, we had to do something.
00:14:07
Speaker
You know, she was like my, she was the matriarch of the family.
00:14:10
Speaker
And we decided, my cousins and I, to like,
00:14:12
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put something together.
00:14:13
Speaker
You know, someone was responsible for a slideshow.
00:14:15
Speaker
Someone was responsible for a speech.
00:14:17
Speaker
And we did this on Zoom.
00:14:19
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And, you know, our parents were kind of like, okay, yeah, I guess we'll do a Zoom meeting as a funeral.
00:14:25
Speaker
And it was the first one I'd ever been to.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I was hosting it.
00:14:29
Speaker
And it ended up being...
00:14:31
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so beautiful and my parents were like they were just so taken aback by how meaningful it was and how lovely it was to like see everyone and i think it's it changes the dynamic of funerals because it's very much like everyone's facing one way you know someone that walks up and says something and so you know and it's like a very kind of it's also this weird like hierarchy like it's kind of like you're in a classroom you know what i mean yeah whereas when you're on zoom like everyone's seeing each other on their screen and
00:15:01
Speaker
We have like an open forum where you can talk and you could just share.
00:15:04
Speaker
And it really still that need.
00:15:08
Speaker
I still think that gathering is very important.
00:15:10
Speaker
I don't think the world should go virtual.
00:15:13
Speaker
Being in community is very important when you experience a loss, but I think it really did still an important need during COVID.
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:15:22
Speaker
Do you think sort of on that, because that is kind of a question that's kind of, it's come up a lot.
00:15:28
Speaker
And one of the last guests I had on was the Be Ceremonial app.
00:15:33
Speaker
And Megan, I think it is, ceremony is so important and COVID sort of obviously did take that from us.
00:15:41
Speaker
But at the same time, it did give us other things, I think, as well.
00:15:44
Speaker
And virtual funerals being one of them.
00:15:46
Speaker
Do you see a downturn of virtual funerals?
00:15:50
Speaker
And what do you kind of think the future of that is going to be or looks like, I guess?
00:15:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great question.
00:15:57
Speaker
And it sort of feels hard to predict.
00:15:59
Speaker
But what I do know for sure is that our numbers actually have gotten, they've suddenly increased, actually.
00:16:06
Speaker
What I do see and what we are seeing is that there's more hybrid services.
00:16:11
Speaker
The definition of a hybrid is that both the parties online and the parties in person are able to interact.
00:16:18
Speaker
So that may look like you're in a traditional space like a funeral home or we've done hotels, we've done parks.
00:16:26
Speaker
And like you have a screen where you can like see the folks who are online.
00:16:29
Speaker
And so it's let's say one of the speakers is virtual.
00:16:33
Speaker
They, you know, their face comes up on the screen and they talk to people and they give their portion of the service.
00:16:40
Speaker
And it's like a two-way reciprocal conversation, which is really cool.
00:16:44
Speaker
And something that is absolutely now for funeral homes and for generally most services is there's an expectation.
00:16:51
Speaker
And I think that this is the same for graduations and for many other pieces, which is live streaming, is that everyone is expecting now in many industries, but especially definitely in the funeral industry, that that service is being live streamed.
00:17:05
Speaker
So I don't think that's going away.
00:17:07
Speaker
And I think that
00:17:08
Speaker
COVID definitely changed a bit of our habits when it comes to travel.
00:17:12
Speaker
Maybe despite people who travel for business or actually even people that travel for business, I think that we're all reducing the amount that we're traveling.
00:17:19
Speaker
It doesn't seem like that when you go to the airport sometimes, but a lot of things could be a Zoom meeting and not always a one-on-one meeting.
00:17:26
Speaker
And if your aunt who lives like 3,000 miles passes away, you might not get on the train to go.
00:17:34
Speaker
You'll absolutely...
00:17:36
Speaker
watch from home and still be there with your family.
00:17:38
Speaker
So we still see that as being what's going to continue to happen.
00:17:44
Speaker
And I think as more and more families are moving into different areas and they're moving further away, it's going to continue.
00:17:52
Speaker
And that's really what we're seeing as the trend.
00:17:54
Speaker
So I don't see it as being like every family doing this.
00:18:00
Speaker
And it's also not something I would encourage.
00:18:02
Speaker
But I still think it's still a service that we're doing and we're still working with a lot of families.
00:18:09
Speaker
It's really interesting.
00:18:11
Speaker
It's definitely something that I feel like was brought in and I don't think is going away anytime soon.
00:18:16
Speaker
Like it's nearly...
00:18:17
Speaker
It's nearly it's nearly why why would you not live stream more so than, you know, would you what would you consider it?
00:18:24
Speaker
Now, did you not find because a lot of people have found whether they they were bringing something out like a new technology or a new app or a new website or whatever for you to do these live streams on, you know, host them on your website.
00:18:37
Speaker
At the other end of it, where there is an actual physical funeral, whether it's a body or the remains in some way, shape or form, and maybe one or two people, do you not need the tech on that side of it?
00:18:48
Speaker
And how did you find that, whether it's with families or with funeral homes?
00:18:52
Speaker
Because a lot of feedback, you know, from on these, the podcast is sort of that it's an antiquated business that needs, you know, a little bit more judge in the tech arena.
00:19:05
Speaker
So...
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, so on the funeral home side, there's quite a few companies now that exist and they are live streaming companies.
00:19:12
Speaker
So they come into your funeral home generally or they'll send you a package, but they will actually set up like a camera system and it makes it really easy that you just have to like press a button and it records.
00:19:23
Speaker
And some of these companies have like these sort of like headquarters where their staff is always making sure that the live streams are working.
00:19:31
Speaker
And so there's like quite a few companies out there that are actually offering this as a service to funeral home providers so that it's like really beautifully set up and it's really easy for them.
00:19:39
Speaker
When it comes to us where we're working with individual families and they could be, as mentioned, from a golf course to a hotel conference room, it's actually really straightforward.
00:19:49
Speaker
We have, you know, very lovely instructions and we have a tech person that walks everyone through it.
00:19:54
Speaker
Generally, what we always request is that it's
00:19:57
Speaker
An individual who's not like a direct mourner, quote unquote, like a really good family friend or a cousin or an uncle who should be present during the service.
00:20:06
Speaker
But it's also not going to be awful if I'm texting them to make sure something's working properly.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:11
Speaker
So what we do is we do like a technical run through with them a few days before.
00:20:16
Speaker
Generally, we ask them to go to the place.
00:20:19
Speaker
They have to pick up a $20 tripod from Amazon.
00:20:22
Speaker
They just need a single smartphone.
00:20:24
Speaker
Depending on the space, we usually recommend a lapel microphone, which is another $40 on Amazon, which they can then technically return after the service that they ought to, which someone will tell Amazon is the savings, but it's the reality.
00:20:37
Speaker
And we kind of do everything.
00:20:39
Speaker
All they have to do is join the meeting on Zoom and then we take over everything else.
00:20:44
Speaker
Right.
00:20:44
Speaker
And so as long as you have one person who's somewhat comfortable, which generally in families today, you have the grandchild, there's always someone and they'll set that up.
00:20:53
Speaker
However, what we have found is that we have been receiving quite a few requests from families for us to be there in person.
00:21:00
Speaker
And some families think that that's part of our service where we have like folks all over the world that can go and fly in and do that.
00:21:06
Speaker
And I would love for us to do that.
00:21:08
Speaker
And we've been looking at maybe partnering with like a media company that's more, it's more, you know, around a certain country, because some people do really just want to hire a professional to do that.
00:21:17
Speaker
And so that's not unfortunately something that we're offering at this time, but I still see a need for it.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, I know we've managed quite well with our.
00:21:25
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:21:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:27
Speaker
And that's good to know for everybody out there who would maybe consider it as you need to need to have somebody who is somewhat in the know and hopefully doesn't work for Amazon and returning the thing.
00:21:39
Speaker
I love that.
00:21:39
Speaker
That's hilarious because I actually have worked with one or two families who did these something once with the entire thing and then returned to that.
00:21:47
Speaker
And actually, one time I was returning something myself in a Whole Foods and I was walking up with like my two little items and I was waiting in line.
00:21:59
Speaker
And the women behind were like, sorry, just a second.
00:22:01
Speaker
And then eventually they just looked at me and were like, have you only got two?
00:22:04
Speaker
I said, yeah.
00:22:05
Speaker
And they said they pulled me over.
00:22:06
Speaker
There was a guy beside me who had 80 items.
00:22:11
Speaker
what I mean I hope like like your entire grocery haul and you're afraid so you were so I actually said to the I mean he was right there so I kind of couldn't ask too much but I said I said what why how what and they just said oh girl they were like you've no idea like you with your two things you're a rarity I was like
00:22:29
Speaker
What are people doing?
00:22:30
Speaker
Are they just buying the whole of Amazon store and then returning everything?
00:22:33
Speaker
Like, is it a try and a buy?
00:22:34
Speaker
I don't know.
00:22:35
Speaker
I mean, I don't know if it's a business or if it's something else.
00:22:38
Speaker
But I mean, and honestly, hauling everything, even hauling the two, because usually it'll be something bulky that I have to haul back to Whole Foods to put in.
00:22:47
Speaker
But anyway, I digress for a minute.
00:22:49
Speaker
Sorry.
00:22:49
Speaker
But so back to, OK, so we've got Keeper Memorial and then and then obviously Talk Death started sort of from that, but has become its own beast.
00:22:59
Speaker
So I guess what's the future?
00:23:01
Speaker
I think, you know, we kind of touched mostly on Keeper Memorial, but what's the future look for Talk Death?
00:23:06
Speaker
Like, do you see it going somewhere?
00:23:08
Speaker
Do you see, you know, what do you see?
00:23:10
Speaker
What do you see in the future if you can predict?
00:23:13
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:23:13
Speaker
So, you know, our team recently got together and we've been kind of working on a bit more of like our mission statement and our goals.
Building Community and Advocacy through TalkDeath
00:23:21
Speaker
And we have a few key pillars.
00:23:24
Speaker
One of those key pillars is community.
00:23:28
Speaker
And so we have one event a year that we've done three years so far, maybe four, I think it's three.
00:23:36
Speaker
We've done our annual Halloween cemetery scavenger hunt.
00:23:39
Speaker
Ooh, amazing.
00:23:41
Speaker
That's been so rad.
00:23:42
Speaker
We do it.
00:23:43
Speaker
It's anyone in the world can participate, literally.
00:23:46
Speaker
And so we put out clues at a certain time.
00:23:49
Speaker
It's the Sunday before Halloween always.
00:23:52
Speaker
And you have to put it on a certain time and then you have to run around your local cemetery and try to find those clues.
00:23:58
Speaker
So that might be find someone who lived to be 100 years old.
00:24:03
Speaker
Find someone with like a funny epitaph on their head still.
00:24:06
Speaker
find an acorn symbol on a headstone.
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome.
00:24:12
Speaker
Thank you for taking that this year.
00:24:14
Speaker
I didn't know about that.
00:24:14
Speaker
You'll have to send me a press release right in the time and maybe I'll get people in Ireland to do it.
00:24:19
Speaker
We'll get it worldwide.
00:24:20
Speaker
Let's go.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, it was really fun.
00:24:23
Speaker
I mean, we actually did it the first year was COVID and we wanted to do, like, obviously...
00:24:27
Speaker
There are definitely a lot of faction of us that are into death care that are also totally coffee and love.
00:24:33
Speaker
So we were like, you know, let's do something for Halloween.
00:24:36
Speaker
It's everyone's favorite holiday.
00:24:37
Speaker
And we wanted to do something that was COVID safe.
00:24:39
Speaker
So walking around a cemetery is like very COVID safe.
00:24:42
Speaker
So that's how it started.
00:24:44
Speaker
And this is an example of like one of the events that we have done.
00:24:49
Speaker
And it's a way to bring in community.
00:24:50
Speaker
So how we involved the community last year with Edivana is we worked with different death collectives around North America.
00:24:56
Speaker
I think we had one in the UK.
00:24:58
Speaker
And we also partnered with different cemeteries.
00:25:00
Speaker
And so they would go to certain cemeteries in cities and they would host it there.
00:25:04
Speaker
So we would send them merch and people who are participating in those cities would go see them.
00:25:09
Speaker
You know, we'd give out merch, we'd give out candy, and that's their way of like meeting other folks within their neighborhood, within their city that are interested in the same thing.
00:25:19
Speaker
And so that's one way we're doing it.
00:25:21
Speaker
We actually just...
00:25:22
Speaker
launched a book club and our first book club meeting is actually at the end of March.
00:25:28
Speaker
And so we're starting a book club now where we're going to be gathering with folks to be reading different kind of books on death and dying.
00:25:36
Speaker
Our first book is called Rebellious Mourning.
00:25:38
Speaker
It's a series of essays and it's really exciting.
00:25:45
Speaker
We actually spoke with our community and people voted on books as well.
00:25:49
Speaker
And so we're trying to definitely like engage our community more by actually doing events, whether they're in person or virtual.
00:25:56
Speaker
And, you know, it's interesting, you know, we've been writing now for almost 10 years, we have hundreds of articles, but there's still so much that we that we have in our list of things to write about.
00:26:07
Speaker
And we still get pitches from writers all the time.
00:26:12
Speaker
And I didn't think, to be honest, that we would be able to sustain this long and continue to churn out content and talk about this.
00:26:22
Speaker
And there's still so much to talk about and there's so much to learn.
00:26:27
Speaker
And so that is more related to our goal on education and advocacy.
00:26:32
Speaker
And so we want to continue writing and speaking about these things and also really raising awareness about issues and just try to help folks try to see things a little differently when it comes to death and dying.
00:26:45
Speaker
It's not just black and white about you have a funeral.
00:26:48
Speaker
It's also talking about, you know, who actually has access to a good death and what are the politics around a lot of this work that we're doing.
00:26:57
Speaker
And so we're trying to just bring different perspectives to folks.
00:27:01
Speaker
That's great.
00:27:02
Speaker
I mean, yeah, what you're doing is is admirable and even more so the fact that, you know, you're doing it without monetary sort of reward, really, because as I said, the content is brilliant and I think it works.
00:27:19
Speaker
well in my opinion it works well for for grievers for people who are bereaved um no matter sort of where you are whether you're next of kin or or further out or people who are just starting off in the business who are curious about the business um or people who are in it for for a long time so i think there's content in there for everyone and you know here at the glam reaper we're a fan of supporting or a fan of supporting women in general
00:27:45
Speaker
But we're a fan of supporting anybody who's sort of communicating with the public.
00:27:49
Speaker
And it's not, you know, there's been sort of, I think the death talk influencers or whatever, you know, there is some disgruntlement about them because sometimes, you know, they're perceived to be not giving the correct information, et cetera, et cetera.
00:28:03
Speaker
But I think at the end of the day, what anybody in this space on social media is trying to do is just exactly as you keep saying, like having the community talk about it, like literally talk about death.
00:28:15
Speaker
Because here's the thing, without the likes of you, me and anybody else who talks about it in a public way, we were still bottling it up and just keeping it inside and not asking the questions like stupid questions, like as in they're not stupid questions, but they feel like, oh, my God, I can't ask that because that's a stupid question.
00:28:31
Speaker
And
00:28:32
Speaker
you know, it's it's just it's bringing all of this information to the fore and whether it's accurate information or inaccurate information or you think alkaline hydrolysis is flushing running down the toilet or you think it's the most beautiful next best thing, you know, for the environment.
00:28:46
Speaker
I just think all these conversations need to be had.
00:28:48
Speaker
And so I think with what you have, I think that.
00:28:53
Speaker
brings that to the fore as well because it's not, you know, you're not being paid to say, well, SCI is great or SCI is not good.
00:29:01
Speaker
SCI being a major corporate player in the funeral space, as most of the listeners know, but it's just, it's just information that you're putting out there and different opinions and stuff.
00:29:10
Speaker
And it's great that you're getting it from, from all sorts of countries all over the world, you know, not just America because it's, you know, not just one place.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:20
Speaker
So that's amazing.
00:29:21
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for joining us on the show.
00:29:23
Speaker
We're going to leave the links to all that we've discussed down below and we'll, you know, all the links to your Instagram, your TikTok.
00:29:31
Speaker
And are you still on Twitter?
00:29:33
Speaker
Actually, I'm not going to lie.
00:29:35
Speaker
I'm not really on Twitter anymore.
00:29:37
Speaker
I'm there in name.
00:29:38
Speaker
We've officially left Twitter a few months ago.
00:29:41
Speaker
There was just we hit a we hit a wall with some of the content that we were seeing a lot posted.
00:29:46
Speaker
So we both applied on Twitter.
00:29:49
Speaker
We have an account on Blue Sky.
00:29:51
Speaker
We haven't been active yet.
00:29:52
Speaker
So if anyone's on Blue Sky, follow us and we'll eventually start posting once we meet.
00:29:57
Speaker
What's Blue Sky?
00:29:58
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:30:01
Speaker
It was founded by the ex-founders of Twitter.
00:30:04
Speaker
Oh man.
00:30:06
Speaker
It's basically the newfound Twitter.
00:30:09
Speaker
The more of the leftist Twitter, to be honest.
00:30:13
Speaker
Isn't that what Threads is trying to be?
00:30:16
Speaker
Threads is trying to be that, yeah.
00:30:20
Speaker
I'm not like I have an account on threads.
00:30:22
Speaker
I have an account on Twitter.
00:30:23
Speaker
But like that, once all that kicked off, I think I repost the odd thing.
00:30:28
Speaker
Somebody else will whatever.
00:30:31
Speaker
I'm just not I'm on it in name and threads.
00:30:33
Speaker
I haven't explored because I ain't nobody got time for all these.
00:30:37
Speaker
I can't.
00:30:37
Speaker
we dabble in it you know but we're not as active our our main actives are facebook instagram and tiktok and we could also be so much better at tiktok like i think look as we have a younger social media manager now and they're they're getting pretty good it's just like i i think i'm just five years too old to be like super into like tiktoking it's just yeah i've never been that kind of
00:31:02
Speaker
No, I mean, girls, same.
00:31:04
Speaker
I like I have a TikTok account and I actually I think I just recently posted.
00:31:08
Speaker
It's more of my own personal one, you know, because anyway, it's like that.
00:31:12
Speaker
I'm just like, how does how do you even do this?
00:31:14
Speaker
And am I doing it right?
00:31:17
Speaker
Oh, God, it's amazing how you get to that age where you're just like, yeah, I am my mom.
00:31:21
Speaker
I am my dad.
00:31:21
Speaker
My God, I never thought this day would happen.
00:31:25
Speaker
Oh God.
00:31:25
Speaker
Well, listen, thank you so much for joining us on the show.
00:31:28
Speaker
It was really a pleasure to hang out with you.
00:31:30
Speaker
And yeah, we'll leave all the links.
00:31:32
Speaker
And if anybody's got any questions, they can reach out to us or they can reach out to Mandy.
00:31:36
Speaker
And yeah, we'll make sure the questions get answered.
00:31:39
Speaker
Thanks so much.
00:31:40
Speaker
Thank you.
00:31:41
Speaker
Take care.