OKLAHOMA with Ray May and Ty Gee

"Okkkkkkklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains..."

With all of the previous states that I have traveled to I have visited at one point in my life before. I have NEVER actually been to Oklahoma however. In fact, when I was thinking about this on the plane Monday morning I was trying to think of what I knew about this great state... I actually knew very little.

The first thing that came to my mind was...



OKLAHOMA! the musical... now I realize this probably isn't the first thing that comes to everyones mind but I am going to go down the road of admitting something that I probably will regret later but I am going to do it anyway. My senior year in high school I was actually casted as the lead in our high school production of Oklahoma! I played the role of Curly. Now I have no clue why I am admitting this to you because I am sure none of my coworkers from the past 10+ years knew this tid bit of information. I guess that is the beauty of blogging. You think you can just admit your deep dark secrets. With "normal" blogging the blogger very seldom knows their reader so it is easy to admit such things, but...I know you. Well,there you go... now keep that between us :)

The next thing I thought about was the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 (although I am ashamed to admit that I had forgotten many of the details of this event in history. More on that later).

I also knew about their two college football teams OSU, and OU. Being the college ball fan that I am how could you not know about OSU and OU.

For those of you that have watched the T.V. Show Friends you will remember Chandler informing Monica that he was being transferred to Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you that have seen this show and the episodes around this plot you will laugh, and if you haven't... it is too long to explain on this blog. But it is funny.

And... that's about it.

MONDAY 12/12

I arrived in Oklahoma and right past the security gate there was Ray May waiting for me. What a guy!



Before I had met Ray I had asked some of the other RC's about him. Everyone that described Ray included the word(s): "World's nicest guy" and "Classy". After spending the week with hi I can tell you that he did not disappoint and exceeded the words spoken of him by others.

We went and grabbed a bite to eat at one of Rays favorite joints. We talked about Precoa, the funeral industry and life. Ray brings an incredible amount of knowledge, experience, and heart to this company and to the industry. He has wanted to be in the industry since he was a young boy (not many people dream of being a funeral director... but Ray did!). This had led to working in several areas of the industry and has settled into preneed here at Precoa. If you haven't read up on Ray yet go to our company website where he is highlighted down at the bottom.

After an extended lunch we headed over to Mercer Adams funeral home in Oklahoma City. We caught them at the tail end of their day but it was great getting to meet the funeral directors (Gary Mercer and Tim Adams, photographed below), apprentice, and other staff members. The funeral home was beautiful. Check out some of these photos...


GARY MERCER


TIM ADAMS







After our visit with the folks at Mercer-Adams Ray took me to go and see downtown. The first place he drove me to was the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I am so glad that he did.

As a refresher of what happened here, read this excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6, and injured more than 680 people. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations."

Here are some of the photos from the bombing:








Here are some of the photos I took with my cell phone when we were there at the beautiful memorial.











Those chairs that are lit up represent each of the victims of the bombing and are located in the approximate place of where they were when the attack occurred. The memorial was beautiful and you couldn't help but have reverence for those that lost their life on that day. Such a tragedy. Thank you Ray for taking me to the site and for helping me not forget this important day in history.

TUESDAY 12/13

Tuesday morning Ty Gee met me at my hotel and together we drove over to Ray's house where we all got in one car and headed to the great city of Tulsa. Our timing for our trip to Tulsa is somewhat unique. Our purpose was to go and visit the Moore funeral home(s)and on Monday evening Joe Moore, the owner and funeral director of Moores actually passed away at the age 92. He had been working regularly up until a month or two ago.



Joe was described as "one of the most caring, thoughtful, and generous men who ever lived." It was a great experience to be around his family and staff on Tuesday and to hear of their memories of Joe. In 1999 Joe was named Oklahoma Funeral Director of the year. He was incredibly well respected in the industry and was known to take great care of his faculty and staff. He cared about the community and loved serving the families that lived there.

It was also great to see the interaction between Ray May, Ty Gee and the faculty at Moores. They are clearly "old time friends" and you know they have a great relationship with these people. I can tell you that Precoa is in great hands in Oklahoma. Ray and Ty are phenomenal and I was continuously in awe of how they handled their work with such professionalism. I am thoroughly impressed.

After we visited with the folks at Moores we met with Christopher Teel. For those of you that don't know... Chris is number 2 in the company. Chris is a funeral director and also has his MBA. He is fascinating and clearly very good at his job. We took him to lunch and picked his brain about his business. Boy I tell ya, when you get Ray May, Ty Gee and Chris Teel in the same room talking funerals... you are in for a treat! They are some of Precoas finest and I have loved spending time with them this week and soaking up everything I could like a sponge.

From lunch we headed to another one of the Moore locations to meet more of the staff (and old time friends of both Ray and Ty). Here are some photos of the locations we saw today.





WEDNESDAY 12/14

Turns out for Ty, Tuesday and Wednesday blurred together into one day as he was up incredibly late putting together packets for todays meeting with Luginbuel Funeral Home in Vinita, Oklahoma. Chris Teel has been working with Dave Luginbuel at one of their smaller locations on a trial basis so some of you counselors that have been working on the Heartland team may be familiar with the Luginbuels.

We drove about an hour outside of Tulsa to get to Vinita. It was pouring rain the entire drive (almost blinding conditions on the road. Good thing I am from Seattle and know how to drive in the rain). We made it to Vinita safely and sat down with Dave (son) and Jack (father) Luginbuel. The presentation went great. I felt that we had the "A team" presenting with Ty, Ray and Chris. It was awesome to see them present and to talk about Preoca. I think Dave and Jack were impressed and wouldn't be surprised to see them coming on board with all of their homes very soon. It is a very long process to get a funeral home to switch over their pre-need business model. Precoa almost always makes logical sense but there are often other factors that keep a funeral home from immediately switching over. The reason why I mention this is so you understand just how important it is that you handle these calls with great care. These funeral directors and owners are trusting you immensely. I know you already know this but continue to handle these calls with care and take pride in the work you do. You are all involved in great work that is helping many many people.

THURSDAY 12/15

Ray and Ty started off the morning with several phone calls to their field counselors and Precoa coworkers, but then we were off to Stillwater, OK! This was a thrill to go to the town were Oklahoma State University is. Ray (being the thoughtful guy that he is) made sure that on our way to the funeral home that we drove by the OSU stadium! The red brick traditional architecture throughout the campus is really quite stunning and fairly knew. It has blossomed into a beautiful institution over the years.

Strode Funeral Home in Stillwater is one of 4-5 funeral homes in town. It was one of the first funeral homes in the state opening up shop in 1889 (the same year Stillwater was founded!. They actually have about 80% market share and do about 300 calls a year (they also do Pet calls for 150 or so pets a year).

Strode has obviously switched ownership many times over the years but the most recent purchase came from within the Strode employee base where three of the employees purchased it together. It is great to see a great locally run funeral home that continues to take pride in serving the community the way it has been done for years.

Here is a picture of the Strode Chapel (below).



Mike Chace is the funeral director and is such a nice guy. I enjoyed hearing his stories and seeing the home there in Stillwater. Mike has great plans to add a crematory and to do some renovations to the home over the next 10 years and is very committed to seeing Strode Funeral Home succeed.

After our visit in Stillwater we headed back to Oklahoma City (Ray and Ty are both turning back around tomorrow morning to attend Mr. Moores funeral).

After my whirlwind trip I can say,

1. I am thoroughly impressed with Ray and Ty. They are phenominal guys and it is a pleasure to work with them and now know them personally.

2. Oklahoma is a great state filled with great people. Everyone was so nice and the food was incredible :)

3. This trip has been much different than the previous weeks but one of the most educational. Seeing the presentation to Luginbuels, meeting with the owners (and legends in the Oklahoma Funeral Industry), and seeing it all through Ray and Tys eyes has been fascinating. This is Ray and Tys stomping grounds and they have known everyone for years and it goes a long way.

4. Field work is critical to our success as a company. The touch that Ray and Ty have is very important.

5. Your calls MAKE A DIFFERENCE! It was great to hear from the owners about their experience with the planning center. They are grateful for your hard work because it effects their bottom line.

Next stop... MICHIGAN!!! (If I can ever get out of Oklahoma... I am sitting here in the terminal. The flight is delayed, we will see if I make my connection :) And take a look at that weather report for Kalamazoo, MI...



Better make sure I pack my long underwear!

Thanks for all you do. Keep up the hard work.

Best regards,

Jon Lefrandt

Salt Lake City with TY GEE

Team,

I apologize that I didn't get the blog entry out to you today. Usually I try and get it done while at the airport on my way home from travel but since I got to drive this past week instead of fly it made it difficult to get it done on time.

It was great seeing many of you as I poked my head into the planning center on Friday! I wish I would have had more time to spend with each of you but you were busy at work and I had a lot of homes to see while we were there. I think my wife found a place that we will love... What a relief! less than a month left! I better get packing :)

This past week with Ty Gee was a lot of fun. Ty is a Regional Director for Precoa and is... AWESOME. He is a genuine NICE GUY. Ty got into the funeral business in 1988. He became a licensed funeral director and embalmer in 1993. He has worked in all facets of the business from managing funeral homes, cemeteries, crematories, pre-need and beyond. He was with SCI for 14 years and then he sold pre-need independently.



Ty Started with Precoa in August 2006 as an RC over Oklahoma. In April 2010, he took over the RD role where he oversees the entire western region which includes 13 states (everything but Southern California).

He and his wife Crissy (who is also a funeral director) reside inn Mustang, Oklahoma with their two girls and are loving life.

This week I spent most of the time going around around with Ty meeting with our counselors Adam Vogel, and Matt Simons. We spent some time going through some trainings and reviewing the important items with the switch over to National Guardian Life.

Below is a photo of the room where the magic happens... check out that green carpet and duct tape!



Don't worry... the rest of the funeral home is beautiful. This is just the attic room where our preneed guys work and where we do trainings when we come into town. If the Russon Brothers ever decide to invest money in new carpet for that room we have suggest they cut up a piece and frame it. It is too priceless :)

Here we see Ty and Adam hard at work.


The three funeral homes that we do preneed out of are all owned by the Russon Brothers. The Russon Brothers mortuary has been in business since 1954. They are now on the second generation of Russon Brothers (Gary, Brent and Scott). They have three locations, one in Farmington, UT one in Bountiful, UT and one in downtown Salt Lake City. Their strongest home is their bountiful location. They are well known and respected in the community.





Their newest location in Farmington is picking up, and adding more and more cases as time goes on. Their location is absolutely breathtaking. Once again... the pictures don't even do it justice but look particularly at the view behind the pulpit. You see the entire Valley!





Their last location in down town is older, but they recently renovated the exterior. They have about 13 competitors in a 3 mile radius... but they did add a crematory in 2008 and are starting to pick up their cremation business.



Russon Brothers probably does the highest percentage of traditional funerals of any of our areas in the company. (Their Salt Lake location being the exception). This provides tremendous opportunity for success for both Adam and Matt. Adam and Matt have both sold for us for several years now. Matt actually sold up in Idaho before moving down to Utah 10 months ago. Both are having a great year. Adam is already a million dollar producer and Matt is close behind him. They both have tremendous work ethic and love what they do. Adam actually sent me a text at the end of the week and wanted me to let you know that he is always so impressed with the amount of care that goes into these calls. He said that Mr. and Mrs. Miner (whom Adam met with this week) even stated how nice the planner they had talked to on the home was. When Adam hears things like this he knows that it makes his job a lot easier because he has a great support group helping with his appointments. He wanted me to personally tell each of you thank you for working so hard so that together we can see success!

GREAT WORK PLANNERS!!!

Also, it was interesting, right before Ty flew into town Salt Lake had a massive wind storm that took down hundreds of trees, destroyed fences, took tons of shingles off the roof etc. When we got to the first funeral home the heat was out and it was freezing. A lot of people canceled their appointments this week because of the huge storm and all the clean up in the area.

This week I am in Ty's home town and spending time with he and Ray May. It has already started off as a great week and I am excited for the next couple days with them. I will make sure I get the next entry to you sooner next week :)

Until then...

Best,

Jon Lefrandt

ROANOKE, VA with TODD DASHLEY

Dear Planners,

First, I want to thank all of you for taking the time to fill out the survey. Hopefully it wasn't too burdensome and hopefully it was more fun than anything to get to know one another a little better. I tried to respond to as many of the emails as I could mostly because I was so intrigued by many of your responses. We have a great group of people on our team and I feel honored to work with each of you.

On our team we have members that have qualified for the Boston Marathon (incredible feat), one that coaches pee wee football, many animal lovers, a lot of artists, and even some of you that like to watch Survivor like I do! We have a lot of similarities and differences as well but we have a great team that has accomplished a lot in 2011 and will continue to do so in 2012! Thanks again!

MONDAY 11/28

This week has been great to see yet another part of the country and another side of the funeral industry. I spent the week in Roanoke, VA with the one and only Todd Dashley. Todd is a true gentlemen and a class act all the way around. I felt immediately comfortable around him and was excited to get to work. Because Virginia is a little ways a way from my home in Utah it took another 8 plus hour day of travel (exhausting).. and I flew in to Roanoke around 5 pm. Todd and I met at the hotel and went to grab a bite to eat and get to know eachother. We also discussed our gameplan for the week.

Background on Todd Dashley:


Photo courtesy of facebook stalking Todd...

Todd started his career in the funeral industry in 1996 where he started as a preneed sales manager with Crown Hill funeral home and cemetery in Indianapolis. He later became the executive Vice President with Crown Hill and loved his time there. After 11 years with the company he left in 2007 to take a managing partner position with Carriage in the bay area. In 2009, Todd left carriage to join Lincoln Heritageas a regional consultant. We are happy he did.

Todd currently serves as the Regional Consultant over Indiana, Illinios, Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Virginia. He oversees 64 different counselors.
1996 started in the funeral industry as a preened sales manager at crown hill funeral home and cemetery in Indianapolis. That means... he is not only pretty awesome at what he does but it also means that he travels. A LOT.

Todd is married (Sharon)and has 2 children. Ben and Brynn. Ben is at Ball State double majoring in Business and Journalism and Brynn is 16 and is dying to get her drivers license (and so are Todd and Sharon) but you have to be 16 1/2 in their home state.

Here is some background on the area:

- This is a closed state, meaning our counselors HAVE to have their Funeral Directors license. (Because of this it is difficult to find someone to fit the mold because most funeral directors are just that... funeral directors).

- 3 weeks ago we found a funeral director that fit the job description and was hired. His name is Kelly Farris.

- Kelly is a 4th generation funeral director. His family still runs the family funeral home about 2 hours South. He sold his ownership back to the family in in 2002-3. Most recently he was a Police officer but has decided to move to Roanoke to be closer to his two daughters that are both in college. He also wanted to get "back into the bizz" and is very excited about selling preneed.

- Kelly is our only counselor in Virginia and is working out of 4 funeral homes (3 Lotz funeral homes and one called Rader Funeral Home) that are all owned by Carriage (You are probably familiar with Carriage, they are a large organization that owns funeral homes all across the country. We do work with about 60% of their homes and I have been in many of them from Sacramento, Kansas City, Florida and now Virginia).

- Even though they are owned by Carriage, they don't take on the "Carriage" name. They have maintained the previous owners names because there is great power in the local, home grown funeral home that people are familiar with and trust.
Roanoke, VA


After our excellent dinner and some great conversation we headed back to the hotel and I crashed. It is exhausting to travel across the country I tell ya :)

Tuesday, 11/29

Today Kelly had 3 appointments scheduled (all by the FPC of course). We were very excited to get the day started. Because Kelly is a very new agent it was important for Todd to go out on some of the appointments as well to see how he was doing. We decided to trade off throughout the week and it worked very well. We headed to the Rader Funeral Home to meet up with Kelly bright and early. Here are some photos of the Rader Home.





Now isn't that exactly what you pictured a funeral home to look like in Virginia???

Unfortunately the first appointment at 9 needed to be rescheduled so Todd took the opportunity to get some more training in with Kelly. This was incredibly valuable for both me and for Kelly. Thank you Todd!

Here is a great shot of Todd Dashley in action! (I swear, even though there are no smiles on either of their faces... we were having a good time)



Todd went out with Kelly on the next appointment to see Kelly put all that he learned into action. Here is Todds write up on how it went:

" Kelly Farris and I ran a DM appointment yesterday for Lotz-Salem Funeral Home. We met with Harold and Linda Coffman in their home. We found out that Harold had sent the survey in because his Dad encouraged him. His father is already prearranged with Lotz.

Initially we were concerned because Harold has recently lost his job and Linda is on permanent disability. But Kelly did a great job of not jumping to conclusions and proceeding with the Final Wishes Organizer process like a pro. During the course of completing the Memorial Guide we found out that they were really passionate about taking care of these plans so their daughter, Stephanie, did not have to worry about them.

After completing the Cost Estimate we were able to find a way that they could comfortably fit payments into their budget. It just proves to me that when we work our processes correctly, and work to truly help a family, there is always a way. One of my favorite quotes is "As the why gets stronger, the how gets easier!". It's all about mission, and the purpose behind our jobs.

We appreciate Carole and her team for putting us in front of the Coffman's, and for being the first step in the process of helping them."

After their one o clock appointment we headed to the Lotz funeral home in Vinton, VA for Kellys last appointment at 4.

Here are some photo of the Lotz Funeral Home in Vinton:




Vinton only does 95 calls a year which is significantly less that the other 3 homes that Kelly works with. Preneed should help their future business signicantly.

Peter and Frances Vanderbergh came to the funeral home right on time (4:00). Peter is 92 and Frances is 82. Peter served in World War II and was stationed in Iwojima. He served int he Navy. He and Frances both are from Rochester New York and came to Virginia to get out of the cold (which I will never understand because I have been FREEZING ever since I arrived here. And that is saying something, because I currently live in UTAH!)

Peter and Frances both know that preplanning their final arrangements is something they should do. They honestly just had no idea where to even start or what they actually wanted. They came fromm DM and were happy to meet with us.

They both want a traditional burrial but they likely will be burried in different places. This is a second marriage for them and Peter will likley go back to Rochester and Frances doesn't know where she wants to be burried. They were cautious of the money that they spend as they made their selections. I think they had some shock as to the cost of the funeral but it is a reality for them since Peter is 92 and has some health problems.

At the end of the 3 hour appointment they did in fact make their final arrangements in that they filled out their memorial guide and selected all of their items. All that is left is to fund. They made it clear they weren't ready to do that today (the Holiday season can be tough) but agreed to meet with Kelly in the first part of January to get their payment set up. Kelly and I both believe this account will fund in January.

We got done at 7 pm and back to the hotel we went. I crashed the second my head hit the pillow (still dealing with Jet lag)...

Wednesday 11/30

Kelly initially had 2 appointments set up today but the 1 o clock appointment called and rescheduled. We had an appointment at 10 am that I had the privledge to go with Kelly on.

I loved this appointment. The Korth's were a darling couple with a great pre-need testimonial in that Mrs. Korths mother had done her pre need policy when she was in her 70s and lived into her middle 90's. It was easy and efficient. She was grateful that her Mother did what she did and wants to do the same for her family.

Mr. and Mrs. Korth were in their upper 70's and are in their second marriage. Both of them lost their spouses when they were young. They had 2 children each and now have a family of 4 children.

This was a direct mail lead and they purely wanted to gather information at this point. Kelly did a great job presenting the final wishes organizer and walked them through the process. They do have some logistics to figure out because this is not the area that they are from but they have lived here for 15 years. So they will likely do a service here and a service in their hometowm. They don't want to burden anyone with having to drop everything to attend a funeral. They want to be cremated and to do a memorial service a month or two later but they would like a viewing for their children. In the end both of their policies will be about $7,000 each.

They did not write up right away but there is no question that they will in January. They just want to really figure out what they want to do. And Mrs. Korth wants some time to think about what she wants to wear in the casket :)

You can't close all of them in their first appointment (only about 30% on average). But Kelly has had some great first appointments this week.

After that appointment we met up with Todd for some lunch and then headed to downtown Roanoke to check out the other Lotz location.

This funeral home was located in the heart of the historic district which was BREATHTAKING. Take a look at these photos I snapped. All of these homes are literally right across the street from the funeral home.



I really wish I would have been here 4-5 weeks ago. I hear the color of the leaves are UNREAL.

Here are some photos of the Lotz- Roanoke Funeral Home:





The picture of the chapel really doesn't do it do it justice. It was pretty stunning when I walked in there and the Christmas tree right in the middle was beautiful.

Anyway, we after a quick tour and meeting some of the staff Todd and I helped Kelly put together 4 sales books. He has different price lists and different product offering for all of the 4 locations... so it took some time to get completely organized. Also, by law Kelly has to give each family a price list when he meets with them, so we needed to make copies of all of that material so he had it and he was prepared.

This was where Todd's years of experience in the pre-need industry really helped. He knew exactly what to buy and how to get organized.

That night I did something I never though I would do... I went to the movies... alone. Todd has family that lives about 40 minutes from Roanoke that he went to meet with and it was Kellys daughters birthday so I hit the town)... and guess what movie I saw???



You guys will probably make fun of me for years for this, and I may kick myself for admitting this to you... but if you have read this far into my blog entry then you deserve to be rewarded :)

I give the movie a solid C-... I have read the books and seen the other 2 movies with my wife... OK, maybe I should stop here... I mean, we don't know eachother that well... right? :)

Thursday 12/1

I can't believe it is December... Just a little over a month until I am in PORTLAND!!!

This morning Todd went out with Kelly on his first appointment and I took care of emails and writing this entry while at Starbucks. I followed up with Todd at the end of the day and he said that this was one of the best weeks he has had out in "the field" in regards to successfully writing up families. Great work Kelly, Todd and our awesome planners at the FPC! You are a key part to the success in the field... especially to a new counselor like Kelly.

In conclusion of this blog entry I want to write an ode to Mary... Mary is the given name of Todd's GPS system in his car.



You see, Todd has spent more time with Mary than he has with his family I think with all of his traveling. There were a couple times that I caught Todd talking to Mary, and I would venture to say that he probably talks to her more often when I (or others) are not in his car. She does a great job at getting Todd from place to place and from state to state. I can't even imagine what Todds life would be like should Mary pass on to the other side... but I am sure he has a preplan policy in place should that happen.

Have a great week planners! Keep working hard so we can finish this year off STRONG!

All the best,

Jon

Getting to know you!!!

Planners,

First, I hope you each had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday. It is one of my favorite holidays but I for sure gained more than I would like. Getting hard to button my top button on my shirts! Yikes!

This week I am headed to Roanoke, VA with Todd Dashley. I have heard a lot of great things about Todd so I am excited to shadow him this week and see his area. Don't you worry... I will take lots of pictures and I am sure I will have some great experiences to share with each of you.

Since this past week was an off week of sorts, I thought it would be fun for you to get to know me a little better and for me to get to know you as well. I will be sending you a short questionnaire with some questions for you to answer about yourself. I have pictures of each of you with your name under it, but I don't know a lot about each of you personally. This month I want to get to know you better even if we aren't in the same office yet :)

But in this blog entry I want to give you a sneak peak into the life of Jon Lefrandt.

Name: Jonathan William Lefrandt (I go by Jon)

Birthdate: March 1

Highest Level of Education: Masters Degree from the University of Utah



Favorite Color: Despite the fact that my mother has given me a Red Shirt every year for my birthday that I can remember... my favorite color is blue :)

Favorite Sport (to watch): It is a tie between college football and college basketball. I don't really get into professional sports.

Favorite Sport or Activity (to play/do): I am a runner. I ran the Salt Lake City Marathon 3 years ago, I have run 4 half marathons, and have done the Ragnar Relay Series the last 3 years. 2 of those years I did the famous "Ragnar" leg where I had to run/climb 1,678 feet in just over 3 miles. This was also after not sleeping for 24 hours and spending the entire time in a small cramped car with 5 other sweaty runners. And after I had already done 2 other legs (one of which was 10 miles at 3 AM) Crazy?? I think so... I love it though.




Favorite food: Hmm... This is a TOUGH one. I love Sushi and would eat this over a nice steak any day. But I also love a good old fashioned Burger and Fries and just about anything chocolate and peppermint.

Favorite vacation: I LOVE going to Southern California and have a slight addiction with Disneyland. Having kids I love going there even more. We even had an annual pass one year... I won't tell you how many times I have been :) Its a lot... I have also been to Disney World, Disney Paris, and most recently to Walt Disneys grave :) Does that make me some kind of a super fan?

Favorite Music: I am a big Michael Buble fan. It does my heart good. But I also like some Beach boys, James Taylor, Michael Jackson and Tim McGraw. A melting pot of music selection for sure.

Family Situation: I am the oldest of 7 kids. I am married. My wife's name is Ashley. Together we have 3 kids. Lily is 4, Sophie is 20 months and William is 2 months old. Lily and Sophie were clearly planned and Will was sort of a surprise :) We love having him as part of our family though.





Funeral Industry Experience: My industry experience really comes from being a "consumer" myself. My father passed away 3 years ago and being the oldest I had to plan the funeral myself. With my father being as young as he was we never really thought or knew of pre planning. My uncle was diagnosed with cancer the same weekend as my father and he and his wife had pre planned their final wishes. I have seen both play out and am completely convinced that preplanning is the way to go. I hated how stressful everything was when my Dad passed. I remember feeling angry at the deadlines to get things done etc. All I wanted to do was grieve and instead I had to keep completely busy with the massive checklist of items and bills to pay.

Favorite TV Show: I am a big fan of Surivivor on CBS. I realize it has been around FOREVER, but I still am a big time fan. I would love to try out for the show someday :)

Favorite Movie: The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford.

What books have you recently read or are currently reading: I usually try to rotate between intellectually stimulating books and mindless reading to keep things interesting... Lately I have read:

- Steve Jobs Biography (all 600 pages of it)
- The Hunger Games (books 1, 2 and 3)
- Good to Great
- Born to Run
- The Ultra Marathon Man
- Outliers

Other random info:

- I am a die hard Apple (computer) fan. I have an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro and have read Steve Jobs bio... These products have changed my life ;)

- I am an eagle scout

- I speak Japanese and actually taught it for a year and a half.

- I have a multi colored eye.

- I have torn my left ACL.

- I love DIET COKE

- I lived in Europe for 3 months and lived in Japan for 2 years.

- I don't like Asparagus

- I am a work hard/play hard kind of a guy but believe you have to have fun at work and love what you are doing. I am going to have to get good at ping pong I hear :)

- I am super excited to be with all of you in Portland and hope that 2012 is our best year yet!


Have a fantastic week. Work hard and I can't wait to hear from each one of you and read your responses!

All the best,

Jon

FT. MYERS FLORIDA

Greetings PLANNERS!

I hope this last week has been as good for you as it has for me. I have had a blast in Ft. Myers, Florida with Trevor Winn. It took me all day Tuesday to fly down to Florida (literally). I got off the plane, walked out of the airport and BAM! my glasses fogged up. The humidity down here is unreal. I love warm weather, palm trees and the ocean. Although when you are in a suit and tie all day... it isn't as glamorous as it sounds. But hey, good thing I love the funeral industry and have loved going out on these appointments with our awesome Precoa counselors. So here comes the travel log... enjoy!

Tuesday 11/15

- Woke up at 4:30 to catch my flights (Jealous?)
- Flew to Atlanta airport
- Filled up on some Burger King hamburger that I totally regretted immediately after it was consumed.
- Flew to Ft. Myers. Read Steve Jobs Biography on the plane (fascinating book by the way).
- Landed in Ft. Myers. Got my rental car. Drove to my hotel and by that time it was 6 pm.
- Ran 5 miles.
- Went to bed.
- Dreamed of closing deals and preplanning families.

Wednesday 11/16

Wednesday Trevor and I met in the hotel lobby for a quick bite and then we were off! Our first stop for the day was at Fuller Funeral Homes in North Naples. The Fuller family has been in the business for years and has a great reputiaton in in the community. They have 2 locations in Naples, and 4 dedicated funeral directors. They do 1,200 calls (funerals) a year. I would say that the average home nationwide does 2-500 calls annually. They actually did 968 calls less ship outs. I mention this because the demographic is interesting here. They have a lot of MEGA MILLIONAIRES that live here and these homes are their second, third... tenth home. Seriously.

Here is a shot of the Funeral Home.



I walked in the door and met what I like to call "THE FACE OF PRECOA"... I say that jokingly, although it may become true because you have all seen her if you look at the Precoa Website. Her name is Jan Smith and she is the Managing Partner here.



Does that face look familiar? If not... you need to check out the new site! www.precoa.com :) I am sure you have all looked at it. It is awesome.

I talked to Jan for a bit over lunch and talked about their business model and what she is doing with her company. Jan is sharp. She is great at what she does and you can tell she runs a great home. They currently had 17 bodies there being prepped (4 of which had done their pre planning arrangements with Dan!)

Their home does about 50% cremation. What I loved is that they actually have an entire building dedicated to cremation services. They seperate the two completely and it is done very well. I think she is an innovator in this respect. The industry is moving in this direction (at least here in Florida, but definitely seeing the trend nation wide).

I also met our Precoa Counselor, Dan Rowe. Dan was incredibly excited because he just qualified for the incentive trip to Hawaii! Check out these photos...



Congrats Dan! We are excited for you and your great accomplishments!

I had to see this man in action. So Dan and I headed off to his first appointment for the day. It was a post service lead. Her husband had died in January. They had done a cremation with a memorial service. This was their second home in the Port Royal area... You guys. This area is seriously where the "rich and famous" must live. The minimum size house (I am told) is 8,000 sf! It was seriously incredible to look at all the homes. Check out this one below... 23,000 SF!



The home we went to was no different. Had landscapers doing maitenance on the yard. We walked in the home to a HUGE grand entry. After going through several rooms to get to the kitchen table we had a beautiful view of their 85 ft yacht! Here is a photo for a reference :)



Their yacht is for sale by the way... they are looking to get 2-3 million for it :)

Anyway. Back to the appointment. It went... ok. Basically what it came down to was that she doesn't really control her own assets. I don't even think she writes checks. Her accountant takes care of all that, and her 4 boys take care of all the family financial matters. So even though it was something she could do, there are many more gate keepers (decision makers) to get through. Tough challenge for Dan to overcome. He told her we would follow up in two weeks and she said she wanted to talk to her son Walter, who lives here locally, about it.

Later that afternoon Dan and I had another appointment. It was a direct mail appointment that went really well. This gentlemen had responded to direct mail and was in his mid 60's. He has had several family members and friends go through Fuller and he is already sold on the company. Since he is in his 60's he has started thinking about it for himself. Dan ran the numbers and it was about a $4,000 cremation policy. He is very interested but, this was a one leg appointment. Most agents don't like these (as you know). He did tell us (as I am sure he told you when you set the appointment) that his wife absolutely does not want to talk about this. I believe him, but I believe that he and his wife will both have policies written up on the next appointment. I appreciated Dan's positive attitude with this lead. He was positive and optomistic and it was worth the appointment being set. Sometimes you (at the planning center) have to make the judement call and in this case it was the right choice.

By the time the appointment was done. Trevor and I headed back to the hotel and that was that.

Thursday 11/17

Woke up bright and early and headed to the Fuller-Metz funeral home in Cape Coral, FL.



I went and met Tim and Renee, the funeral directors here. Had a quick tour of the funeral home and then Rebecaa (the Precoa counselor) and I had to jet off to a 9 am appointment.

Rebecaa Roberts is a new agent with Precoa (2 months) and she is AWESOME (in my opinion). The second I got in the car with her I was fascinated by her energy and enthusiasm. She is a riot. She LOVES her job. She is on track to go to Hawaii and is so excited because her whole life she has only been to Chicago, Indiana, and Florida. She is recently married. Has 3 kids and needs a honeymoon!!!!

We arrived at the house, walked in the door and immediately captivated the attention of the couple. We sat down at the kitchen table and she began her presentation. She did a great job at using all of the tools Precoa has given her and making the presenation her own as well (pretty incredible for being here only 2 months).

The couple (Rose and Richard Brunner) have been married for 7 years. Richard spent time in Vietnam and was in the Marine Corps. Rose is from the Phillipines. They have no children together, no family, and No friends (from what they told us).

They both wrote up direct cremation policies for about $3,000 a pieace with 10 year pays.

We went back to the funeral home. Picked up Trevor and went and grabbed lunch. After lunch we were off to our next appointment.

This appointment was a man that had already prepared his final arrangements but he wanted to add a viewing and some other items. In short... he was a TALKER and it was hard to get him focused on the matter at hand. Rebecca is great at this though and kept realing him in. We eventually were able to get him to finish the paperwork and she was about to get another $2,000+ policy done.

After that appointment we immediately headed over to the next appointment. The husband had already bought a policy but the wife wanted to purchase one for herself. She wanted a traditional funeral/burial and was really just shopping for a quote it appeared. She is going to check with one other funeral home and get back to Rebecca. This was a bit frustrating for Rebecca but these folks were pretty set in their ways and would not write up.

All in all it was a fabulous day. I was inspired by Rebeccas energy, enthusiasm and professionalism when dealing with the clients. I think she has a bright future ahead of her at Precoa!

Friday 11/18

Friday morning Trevor and I headed back to the Naples location where he planned on sitting in on Dans appointment and I was able to meet the last counselor on my trip. Her name is Debra. She also works out of the Naples office with Dan.

She had an appointment set for 10 a.m. She went through their VERY detailed file that they already had at the funeral home to see where there were holes. This couple had outlined absolutley everything that they wanted for the final wishes they were just chipping away at the payment of it all. They had an estimate through Fuller back in 2005... this was perfect because the prices had already gone up $3,000 since then so Debra knew it would be easy to help them understand why they needed to set up a policy today.

The couple came a little bit early and were just awesome. One of my favorite parts about this industry (as I am sure each of you can relate to) is hearing the stories. Sometimes the motive for people to preplan with us is strictly financial but I don't believe we are effective if we just crunch the numbers. Those clients that are creating a plan for their loved ones are the stories that I love most.

The husband was 81 and the wife was 77. Between their kids, grand kids and great grand kids they had 60 people. 60!!! Can you believe it? The wife when she was four lost both of her parents in a horrible accident and her husband's mother was told by the doctor that she would never be able to have children... look what these two have accomplished together. They spoke so highly of their family and wanted to make sure everything was taken care of. Debra did awesome. She makes it seem so effortless and natural when she is presenting. It doesn't feel like a presentation at all.

They both wrote up policies for approx $8,000 a piece and one did a 10 year pay and the other did a 20 year pay.

It was a great end to my trip in Florida. Many thanks to Fuller funeral homes and Trevor Winn for allowing me to come and be their shadow for a couple days. I learned a lot and absolutely enjoyed every minute.

I am seriouosly in awe of how awesome our company is. We have incredible people in the home office AND the field.

Have a fantastic week and a GREAT Thanksgiving!

Best,

Jon