The Direct Cremation Podcast

Hosted by Will de Michaelis, Tyler Yamasaki

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Sep 2026

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For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. Tyler and Will explore the innovation happening within death care. Come join us as we explore unique perspectives from all sides of the death care industry. Tyler Yamasaki is the CEO of Parting Pro, an online arrangement platform that has helped over 150,000 families arrange their services from the comfort of their own home. Will de Michaelis helped grow and manage the Omega Society, a cremation brand that at it's peak, helped over 4,500 families a year.

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October 23, 202621 min

4 Reasons Funeral Home Side Brands Fail | Will de Michaelis (PartingPro) #74

Launching a lower-cost cremation brand alongside a traditional funeral home sounds like a smart growth move. The market opportunity is obvious. Cremation keeps gaining share, families increasingly want simpler arrangements, and a well-run direct cremation business can generate meaningful revenue without requiring another full-service operation. The surprising part? The biggest problem usually is not branding, pricing, or demand. It is execution. Launching a lower-cost cremation brand alongside a traditional funeral home sounds like a smart growth move. In Episode 74 of the Direct Cremation Podcast, Will de Michaelis breaks down why that opportunity attracts so many funeral home owners—and why many side brands still struggle to get off the ground. The surprising part? The biggest problem usually is not branding, pricing, or demand. It is execution. Timestamps (00:00:00) Intro (00:00:43) What Makes a Side Brand Tempting (00:01:46) The Revenue Opportunity (00:02:32) Why Most Side Brands Fail (00:03:03) What We Looked At (00:04:48) How They Performed After Launch (00:06:04) What We Expected vs What We Found (00:06:49) Why Don’t Side Brands Work Out? (00:08:25) The Risk Nobody Talks About (00:08:56) The Champion Without Authority (00:11:21) What Has to Be True First (00:11:32) A Real Owner (00:12:08) Dedicated Staffing Time (00:14:03) Build the Workflow Before Launch (00:16:32) Getting Staff Buy-In (00:18:13) Alternatives to a Side Brand (00:20:40) The Real Decision: Staffing, Not Marketing For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

September 9, 202631 min

Biggest Funeral Home Phone Call Mistakes | Will de Michaelis (PartingPro) #73

A family calls your funeral home, asks about cremation pricing, thanks your team, and says they will call back. Then they disappear. We’re kicking off a fresh new month on the Direct Cremation Podcast as our host, Will de Michaelis, explains why this happens so often—and why the problem usually has little to do with price. Watch the full interview here 🎧 https://youtu.be/3UYOzirBHZ8 (00:00:00) Intro (00:00:41) The Call Handling Guide (00:01:27) The #1 Call-Losing Mistake (00:02:37) What Call Length Tells You (00:04:24) Core Principles of Call Handling (00:05:37) The First 15 Seconds (00:06:27) The Phone Greeting (00:06:43) Lead With Empathy (00:07:29) What Not To Do (00:07:58) Ways To Express Condolences (00:09:12) Identifying the Call Type (00:09:51) Winning the At-Need Call (00:10:51) Pre-Planning and Price Shoppers (00:12:17) Filtering Out the Noise (00:13:53) The Marginal Question (00:16:20) A Clear Pricing Breakdown (00:17:37) Securing the Next Step (00:18:39) Five Ways To Secure It (00:22:13) Let Them Lead, Then You Lead (00:24:04) Taking Control of the Call (00:26:06) Tone, Empathy, Professionalism (00:27:35) Do's and Don'ts (00:28:14) The Phone Call Checklist (00:29:21) Handling Off-Target Calls (00:30:45) Final Thoughts _ For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

August 17, 202624 min

Your Funeral Home Is a Call Center | Will de Michaelis (PartingPro) #72

In this episode of the Direct Cremation Podcast, host Will de Michaelis challenges funeral home owners to rethink phone coverage. His central point is simple: every funeral home operates like a small call center, yet most firms do not staff their phones using call-center data. Your funeral home may be a small call center—but every call carries far more weight than an ordinary customer-service inquiry. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:10) The Calculator (00:01:25) What is Erlang C? (00:01:56) How We Used To Staff Our Phones (00:02:47) Staffing is Not a Scheduling Problem (00:03:31) Erlang C in One Sentence (00:04:59) Your Funeral Home is a Call Center (00:05:23) How to Start Staffing Like a Call Center (00:06:30) The Raw Call Data (00:08:25) Why You Shouldn't Trust The Raw Data (00:09:15) Data Quality Issues (00:12:21) The Cleaned Data (00:14:45) The Call Data (00:16:32) The Dashboard (00:16:59) The Most Important Number (00:19:42) What Do You Do With This? (00:23:05) Here's Your Homework Watch the full interview here 🎧 https://youtu.be/fJA83tpo8bc] ( https://youtu.be/fJA83tpo8bc _ For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

July 9, 202615 min

From Hospice Flyers to Referrals | Will de Michaelis (PartingPro) #71

Whether you use funeral home software, a cremation website, or the best funeral home software available, your marketing works best when it helps people solve real problems. This episode explains exactly how to create educational materials that hospice staff will actually keep, share, and remember. 💡 Timestamps (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:36) Hospice Flyers That Make An Impact (00:02:00) Questions To Ask Yourself When Creating Flyers (00:05:24) Flyers That Hospice Workers Love (00:07:19) How To Make The Flyers? (00:08:56) How to Use AI to Make Your Flyers For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

June 24, 202625 min

The Hospice Referral Factory (Will de Michaelis) #70

Will calls it the “Referral Factory,” and the name fits. This approach does not rely on one lucky call, one cremation ad, or one direct mail campaign. Instead, it creates a repeatable system that helps a funeral home, cremation provider, or online cremation services brand become the trusted resource healthcare workers remember when families need guidance. Don't miss out—check the full episode now! 🎧 Timestamps (00:00:00) Intro (00:00:59) Welcome to The Direct Cremation Podcast (00:01:43) The Death and Dying Ecosystem (00:02:51) Who is Your Customer? (00:05:18) The Hospice Opportunity (The Math) (00:10:30) Step-by-Step Relationship Building Process (00:14:27) Education vs. Branding (00:16:36) Important Channels for Lead Generation (00:19:57) Action Plans for This Week For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

June 23, 202641 min

GEO and the New Era of Funeral Home Visibility | Welton Hong (Ring Ring Marketing) #69

Families no longer search for funeral homes the way they did ten years ago. They still use Google, of course, but they also ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI tools for recommendations. That shift creates a new question for funeral professionals: when a family asks a robot which cremation provider to trust, will your firm show up? In this episode of the Direct Cremation Podcast, host Tyler Yamasaki, CEO of Parting Pro, welcomes back Welton Hong, CEO of Ring Ring Marketing, gives funeral homes, cremation providers, and death care marketers a practical look at how AI search may affect local visibility, cremation advertising, and funeral website marketing. If your next case depends on how Google or ChatGPT summarizes your business, this episode is one you can’t miss! ☝🏽 Timestamps (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:03) Welcome to the Direct Cremation Podcast! (00:01:14) Welcome, Welton Hong! (00:02:14) What is Generative Engine Optimization? (00:03:44) What Has Changed with AI/Answer Engines Over the Last Year? (00:09:58) The Future of Google and AI Tools (00:15:57) Adapting to AI and Google's Dominance (00:17:15) The Importance of SEO Content and FAQ Style (00:18:46) The Role of Google Business Profile and Citations (00:22:55) The Impact of Schema Markup (00:26:31) The Future of AI and Local Search (00:30:00) Ranking the Importance of Free and Paid Marketing Strategies (00:31:18) Balancing Growth and Market Protection (00:33:55) Predictions for the Future of Search (00:38:46) The Importance of Quality Content For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

June 17, 202614 min

The Top 3% | Will de Michaelis (PartingPro) #1

In this solo episode, Will de Michaelis is back in the pod to dive into data collected from more than 500 funeral homes and uncovers the operational patterns shared by the industry's highest performers. These elite firms represent just 3.7% of the funeral homes studied, yet they consistently handle 1,000, 2,000, and even 3,000 cases annually. Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:51 The Top 3% of Funeral Homes 00:01:44 The data 00:02:25 The cultural belief in funeral service 00:03:11 Finding 1: They build teams, not empires 00:04:24 Finding 2: They're never done improving 00:05:55 Finding 3: They know their numbers 00:07:41 Finding 4: They commit fully 00:09:03 Finding 5: They own their core 00:10:51 Intentionality 00:12:18 Homework: Audit yourself this week For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

November 19, 20251 hr 21 min

Selling Caskets at Cost and Making More Money | Tom Anderson (Funeral Director Daily) #68

Few in death care can match the experience and perspective of Thomas J. Anderson—fourth-generation funeral director, community leader, University of Minnesota Regent, and the voice behind the widely read Funeral Director Daily blog. In this episode of The Direct Cremation Podcast, host Tyler Yamasaki, CEO of Parting Pro, dives into Anderson’s story of legacy, innovation, and gratitude. From stepping up at 19 to keep the family business alive, to modernizing operations and navigating a successful sale, Anderson’s journey is a playbook for today’s funeral home owners facing an evolving market. - Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:54 Welcome to the Direct Cremation Podcast! 00:01:06 Welcome, Thomas J. Anderson! 00:02:34 The Anderson Family Legacy and Funeral Business 00:07:01 Expanding the Funeral Business 00:10:52 Innovation in Funeral Business 00:18:47 Selling the Business and Non-negotiables 00:20:41 Value of Brand Name and Pre-need 00:32:01 The Start of Funeral Director Daily 00:33:49 The Growth and Impact of Funeral Director Daily 00:37:51 The Role of "Experiences" in Funeral Services 00:39:32 The Goal of The Funeral Director Daily 00:46:49 Consolidation in Funeral Business: Pros and Cons 00:49:02 Advice for Funeral Home Owners Considering Selling 00:54:57 Speed Round: Future of Various Aspects of Funeral Industry 00:55:17 Alkaline Hydrolysis 00:56:27 Composting/Natural Organic Reduction 00:58:05 Online Cremation Brands 00:58:40 Online Memorialization Beyond Static Obituary 00:59:38 Cemeteries 01:02:55 Women in the Death Care Industry 01:07:31 Online Pricing Transparency and Regulation Changes 01:10:03 Consumer Trends and Traditional Funeral Services For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

October 29, 202547 min

Avoid Losing Customers on the First Call | Ashley Jones (Parting Pro) #67

When a family calls your funeral home, they are not shopping for a product. They are searching for peace of mind. If you lead sales, answer phones, or manage training for your team, this is a masterclass in turning a price inquiry into a real relationship! #FuneralHomeSoftware #CremationSoftware #FuneralManagementSystem #FuneralDirectorTips #OnlineCremations #FuneralArrangingSoftware #CremationBusiness #FuneralServiceSoftware #FuneralHomeMarketing #FuneralTech - Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:12 Welcome to the Direct Cremation Podcast! 00:01:26 Welcome Ashley Jones! 00:02:04 Importance of the First Phone Call 00:04:05 Building Trust on the First Call 00:05:36 Balancing Facts and Genuine Connection 00:09:01 Goals of the First Phone Call 00:12:03 Common Mistakes in the First Call 00:13:32 Avoiding a Robotic Approach 00:15:43 Understanding the Language of Care 00:17:12 Powerful Language Swaps in the Funeral Industry 00:22:57 Handling Different Types of Customers 00:24:51 Closing the Call and Next Steps 00:26:53 Dealing with Uncertain Customers 00:29:41 The Importance of the Second Phone Call 00:32:17 Maintaining Consistency Across Multiple Locations 00:33:48 Training Staff for Effective Phone Interactions 00:36:26 Learning from Negative and Positive Feedback 00:40:23 The #1 Thing You Should Remember Before Answering a Call 00:42:34 The Impact of Good Phone Etiquette on Business Growth For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Spotify: http://bit.ly/3yDEwj7 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3lj2soT Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com

September 8, 202550 min

NCAA Champion to Death Care CEO | Donnell Beverly, Jr. (Russel Westbrook Enterprises, Eazewell)

What begins as a story about basketball evolves into a powerful conversation about grief, legacy, and the future of funeral service software. It’s personal, smart, and packed with fresh ideas! 💡 #FuneralWebsiteBestPractices #FuneralIndustry #DeathCareLeadership #OnlineFuneralArrangement #FuneralHomes #AfterDeathCare #Eazewell #DirectCremationPodcast - Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:01 Welcome Donnell Beverly Jr! 00:01:59 Basketball Career and Its Influence 00:03:25 Impact of Losing High School 00:05:39 How Grief Shaped Donnell's Outlook About Death Care 00:07:49 Transition to Business and Russell Westbrook Enterprises 00:12:05 College Experience and Leadership 00:15:10 Investment Philosophy and Social Responsibility 00:17:00 Zero World Media 00:18:50 Intentionality in Business and Partnership 00:20:01 Introduction to EazeWell 00:20:47 EazeWell's AI and User Experience 00:23:42 Partnership with LegalZoom 00:25:04 Value Proposition for Funeral Homes 00:27:23 EazeWell's National Rollout 00:28:43 Price Transparency in Funeral Services 00:31:18 AI and Human Concierge Services 00:32:52 Revenue Model and Funeral Home Partnership 00:33:54 AI-Assisted Account Closure 00:37:15 Quote Generation and User Experience 00:38:33 Financing Options for Families 00:40:34 Encouraging AI Adoption in Funeral Homes 00:43:20 What's Next for Eazewell 00:44:30 EaseWell Company Overview 00:47:13 Predictions for Death Care in 10 Years 00:48:14 Where to Find Donnell - For Innovative Funeral Directors Blazing a Trail. A podcast for funeral home owners where we talk about trends & opportunities we see in the funeral home industry. We bring on death care professionals and cremation experts to share what they know. Click here to subscribe: https://bit.ly/3PxOqMO Find us at https://directcremation.com Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@directcremationpod Want to start a cremation brand yourself? Learn how the some of the biggest cremation brands do it at https://www.partingpro.com Learn the playbook responsible for growing my family business to over 4500 calls a year without digital marketing: https://wdgroupconsulting.com