Podcast

The International Convention and Expo is taking place in New Orleans October 20th to the 23rd. To get ready for the event we have 3 convention preview episodes for you to check out. In those episodes, host, Gabe Schauf, is joined by the Innovation Award Finalists, some of the Workshop Presenters, and of course, the Keynote speakers. In this first episode we will hear from the innovation award finalists. The NFDA Innovation Award is sponsored this year by ASD and gives companies and organizations the opportunity to showcase their new product and service ideas designed to enhance the funeral profession its function. The finalists this year are Nemu, Clear View Caskets, and 1Director.

In May of 2023, the NFDA hosted its latest Future’s Forum, a highly focused, forward-looking session held on an as-needed basis to tackle serious challenges impacting funeral service providers. The goal of Future’s Forum 2023 was to develop new growth and innovation strategies funeral providers could use to overcome current revenue challenges, increasing costs and staffing shortages. In the spirit of that theme, host, Gabe Schauf is sitting down with Brie Smith, Erica Hill, and David Hernandez Jr to learn how they are looking to the future and modifying and innovating at their funeral homes for the better.

On "A Brush With Death: 5 Minutes On...," we spend 5 minutes providing listeners with quick insights into various funeral trends, products, events, organizations, and goings-on. In this episode, host, Gabe Schauf, is talking about Tukios with founder, Curtis Funk. Tukios is a software company providing simple solutions to funeral homes, including a tribute video software, website development and hosting, and follow-up services to keep them in touch with their community.

In this episode, host, Gabe Schauf is joined by his brother, the founder and CEO of Uncharted Supply Co., Christian Schauf.  Uncharted's mission is to provide high-quality, intuitive gear to help people navigate emergencies big and small.   Gabe and Chris talk about entrepreneurship, ownership, innovation, and how passion drives success in work and life.

On "A Brush With Death: 5 Minutes On...," we spend 5 minutes providing listeners with quick insights into various funeral trends, products, events, organizations, and goings-on. In this episode, host, Gabe Schauf, is talking about @Need Marketing, a full-service marketing agency for funeral homes. Gabe is joined by Michael Anderson, President of @Need Marketing.

On "A Brush With Death: 5 Minutes On...," we spend 5 minutes providing listeners with quick insights into various funeral trends, products, events, organizations, and goings-on. In this episode we are talking about Chptr, a new mobile-first memorialization platform. Joining host, Gabe Schauf, is Rehan Choudhry, Founder and CEO of Chptr. Learn more about Chptr and try it for free at https://www.chptr.com/.

In May of 2023, the NFDA hosted “Future’s Forum” where 70 attendees representing the death care space met to analyze, discuss, and strategize the future of our profession. This event was facilitated by Jim Austin and Paul Schoemaker, two gentlemen whose careers focus on strategic decision-making for businesses of all kinds. On this episode, host, Gabe Schauf, is joined by Jim and Paul to discuss the Future’s Forum event and what the future of the funeral profession could look like. Is your firm only operating in the present or is it looking ahead? Do you know what you can do to innovate, where there are opportunities to grow, and how to begin moving forward? This episode is a good place to get started. Funding in part for this event was provided by a grant from the Funeral Service Foundation.