Podcast

In this episode, host Gabe Schauf is joined by Leili McMurrough, a licensed funeral director and President of Worsham College of Mortuary Science, to share her experiences and insights from the profession. Leili is the recipient of the 2024 NFDA Inspiration Award, sponsored by NGL, which honors an exceptional woman who has made significant contributions to funeral service. This episode is sponsored by NGL.

Host, Gabe Schauf, sits down with funeral director, speaker, and entrepreneur, Regan Moreland to hear about her journey into funeral service and what drives her to be a “lifelong learner.”

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, talks with Welton Hong, founder of Ring Ring Marketing, about what the future of the profession looks like in terms of overall call volume, and what funeral homes can do to prepare.

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, talks with Kevin O’Connor, author of Two Floors Above Grief. Kevin shares his inspiration for the book he wrote about growing up in his family’s funeral home in Elgin, Illinois.

In September of 2022, the world watched as Queen Elizabeth was given a final farewell. The world watched as every news station and social media outlet broadcast footage and provided updates on the events of her passing and services as they happened. Meanwhile, funeral director, Tim Purves, and his staff worked on location to provide services and care fit for a monarch. In this episode, host, Gabe Schauf, speaks with Tim about those services and how the funeral profession operates on his "side of the pond". Tim Purves is the 5th generation owner of William Purves Funeral Directors, the largest, independent funeral business in Scotland, with a team of more than 100 staff across 25 branches in Scotland and northeast England.

In 2023, the NFDA sent film crews out to various cities to talk with consumers about their impressions of funeral directors. There were mixed reactions and a combination of positive and negative comments that gave an eye-opening perspective on the public’s views of the funeral profession. In this episode, host, Gabe Schauf sits down with funeral directors, Lori Sheeler, Anna Zvirman-Nesbit, and Naomi Bradbury-Marchand to discuss those impressions and what we can do to develop the public’s positive perception of funeral service.

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, talks with Bill A Johnston, president of Post and Boost and author of the new book, "The Consumer's Journey to Purchasing Funeral Services." Bill is a Facebook expert who invented a proprietary, scalable software platform that creates, posts, and boosts custom advertising for Funeral Homes on Facebook, and is dedicated to inspiring funeral home owners and operators to discover advertising can work for funeral homes.

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.

Host, Gabe Schauf is joined by Victor Sweeney, "The Wired Mortician". Victor is a funeral director with DuBore Funeral Home in Warren, Minnesota who came into the national spotlight by just "doing the right thing". He has since been featured multiple times by Wired Magazine in videos created to shed some light on funeral profession. In this episode, Victor shares his story and some thoughts on being a funeral influencer and educating the public.

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/.