Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / Black Fridays Special - Why This Detroit Funeral Home Has Survived Over a Century w/ Antonio Green (James H. Cole Funeral Home)

Transcript

Black Fridays Special - Why This Detroit Funeral Home Has Survived Over a Century w/ Antonio Green (James H. Cole Funeral Home) · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: What up though Black Friday family, welcome back to another installment of Black Friday's podcast.
0:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Before we get into today's episode, hit the like button, subscribe, make sure as you continue to support the platform.
0:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that we got that out of the way, we are continuing our legacy business series with the legacy business project and hot sounds and we're sitting inside of the legacy lounge at hot sounds Detroit and I have, I don't think you get even more legacy than this when it comes to James H. Cole and the final services that they provide in the city of Detroit, but I haven't told you, joining me from James H. Cole, how you doing today?
0:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Pretty good, pretty good.
0:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for being on the platform.
0:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And before we get started into your background and the business overall, we'll love to be able to first just ask you, what does the word legacy mean to you?
0:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, so legacy means that you have to have something that was established before you.
0:53
[SPEAKER_01]: One person can start a legacy, but they probably won't see that too for wishing while they're living.
0:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So legacy has to be something that's established before you, but also you have to be paying homage to that because the minute that you stop
1:11
[SPEAKER_01]: The minute that you stop understanding what your legacy is and you stop respecting those that paved the way before you as the minute your business or that legacy will start to fail.
1:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's too pronged is just having that respect of those who came before you and understanding what that legacy means because it's so easy.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: to just take for granted what's been given to you.
1:33
[SPEAKER_01]: You necessarily have to like, I work hard.
1:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I build our business up, I keep it going, but I didn't start it.
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a founder.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a fourth generation in the business, but I respect my great-grandfather, my mother, who paid the way before me.
1:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So, fourth generation, that goes deep into what we're just talking about in terms of legacy.
1:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I would love to know from your perspective, what was your introduction to the family business, growing up, and then transitioning into actually being a part of the family business?
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think in any family business, especially a black family business, as you grow up in the business.
2:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, even as a kid, you're not necessarily working at the business, but you're there.
2:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I remember being in the casket selection room as kids and playing hide and go seek and running around.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: getting on my mom's nerves and other staff members nerves.
2:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you grow up in the business.
2:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So funeral home was like, wasn't like any other business.
2:31
[SPEAKER_01]: We grew up in the business and it just became second nature.
2:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't even in school when you were younger and people found out what my mom did with the family did.
2:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, you're not scared.
2:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, well, no, I mean, because you grow up in it.
2:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
2:44
[SPEAKER_01]: But same as any family business you grow up in the business and, you know, it becomes a part of you.
2:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it's not a positive thing because you see how much stress, how much hard work and dedication that your parents have to put in.
3:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And you feel like, oh, that's not really something I want to do.
3:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I may just want to go get a nine to five or I may want a corporate job.
3:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So in a way, it may turn some people off.
3:12
[SPEAKER_01]: but then others it makes them more entrenched and more dedicated because they see that hard work and they want to get in there and you know have grow the business and have something to contribute to their family as they go grow up.
3:26
[SPEAKER_02]: and then what was your background in terms of the education and profession and then when did you join the family business officially?
3:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, so I went to graduate it from a U of D Jesuit here in Detroit.
3:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So I went down to a high old bowling green from my undergrad.
3:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And at that point I still, it was probably a couple of months from graduation and I still had not decided that I was going to work full time in the business.
3:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I always said I would be a part of the business, I would do something else but then help out part time in the business.
3:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I initially went to aviation school and bowling green because I was going to be a commercial pilot You know, only work two weeks out the two weeks out the month other two weeks I could spend at the funeral home So I had all mapped out and then kind of grew away from that side of it and I'm a month away from graduating wrote my bachelor's and I'm like wow What am I going to do?
4:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was like, well, I'll just go to mortuary school.
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So I went down to Cincinnati to the mortuary school there.
4:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's been a year there and came back up here.
4:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was 2006 when I graduated mortuary school.
4:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And I came back to Detroit and started working, minute I came back.
4:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So in terms of aviation, I got to ask you real quick.
4:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you still, do you fly planes?
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I have flown in a long time, but I still hold my license.
4:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to get back up in the air one day.
4:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It just takes a lot of time and being in trench in the business hard to get time.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have still a private pilot.
4:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Got you.
4:56
[SPEAKER_02]: That's super dope.
4:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Any?
4:58
[SPEAKER_02]: What is your current title with the family business and then what does your day to day typically look like?
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: us.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the vice president and I'm the president of our legacy foundation.
5:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So at our Centennial in 2019, our Centennial year, we launched the James H. Cole Legacy Foundation, which is a nonprofit that's kind of dedicated to giving back to the city, especially children within the city.
5:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the president of that.
5:26
[SPEAKER_01]: We spearheaded trying to get more traction but kind helping children in school, providing needs for them, providing supplies and services that they don't get offered within the school setting.
5:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's where our foundation is spearheading, but in the funeral home side, I do literally everything from day to day, meeting with families, overseeing our marketing efforts, strategy, you know, some even sweepin' a floor if I can't do.
5:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's nothing that I don't do in heaven done within the funeral home.
5:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So is it true what they say that in entrepreneurship or business in general, like you don't have like a singular title, like you basically do a little bit everything whatever needs to get done?
6:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have to.
6:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the most successful businesses, that's how they grow.
6:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So I remember being during summertime and coming to work at the funeral home during the summertime and answering the phones, being on reception does help in clean up.
6:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to be willing to start, quote unquote on the bottom.
6:27
[SPEAKER_01]: because you have to understand what every layer of your business means and what those people do.
6:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to sit up high and dictate somebody will you do this and you do that.
6:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you don't understand what they're doing, you're not going to know how to properly delegate those responsibilities and understand who can be doing more.
6:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So you may have one person in a role and that's all that they're there for.
6:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But then when you realize what they're really doing, oh, you could be doing two or three more things.
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And vice versa, you might be putting too much on someone's plate and you don't realize that if you don't know what that role fully entails.
7:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
7:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can only imagine working in a family business being for a generation's deep and then getting your foot in into coming to the folk as officially a part of the business, you probably had a lot of bosses inside and outside of the business.
7:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, being younger.
7:20
[SPEAKER_02]: So what is that?
7:21
[SPEAKER_02]: What has that been like for you?
7:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's actually the premise of why I wrote my book, so in 2021 I wrote talk to me understanding the millennial mindset, which was based it's the book is based around understanding the millennial generation, why we're so different from every generation.
7:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But really, the premise behind the book really came from my experience with coming out of school and working in the firm full time and having to bridge the gap between the senior staff who had been there since I was, you know,
8:01
[SPEAKER_01]: are now I'm in the business and I'm quote unquote now the boss so you know some people didn't take kindly to some people you know welcome with with open arms kind of show me the way but then somewhere kind of stand off is so I couldn't come in and just try to turn things around and run stuff a certain way I had to gain the respect of those older staffers who have
8:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's what's got in the premise of the book is just teaching people, you know, when you're in that situation, you have to learn, know your audience.
8:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes you have to pull back.
8:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be an innovator and you want to come in and change the family business all around.
8:41
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do things different.
8:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes you've got to hold back because you're going to meet resistance if you come in with change like that.
8:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have in quote unquote page or do.
8:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
8:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can, you know, have those things in mind, work towards them in the background, but make sure that you're not leaving those senior staffers behind because you're gonna need them to still support and show the way of the company to those younger staffers that are in the company and those that will be coming on.
9:10
[SPEAKER_01]: you have to kind of pay homage a little bit, you know, show some respect to those senior workers, but also be able to hone that knowledge.
9:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So especially in our industry and the funeral industry, like you'll have somebody that's been working for 60, 70 years, like you'll have some of 85, 90 years old that still comes into the funeral home every day to work.
9:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
9:31
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have to be able to get that knowledge from them.
9:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't let them die with all that knowledge.
9:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to be able to have a way established that you can kind of nurture and pull that information out of them, all those years and decades of experience, how can we sit down and do a two-hour interview and record this?
9:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, how do we get that information out of you before something happens to you and now it's gone forever?
10:01
[SPEAKER_02]: and working in the funeral services business, I got to add, I have so many questions.
10:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm excited to have this conversation with you today, because obviously you're meeting people at some of the worst times or worst times in their life.
10:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And so being surrounded by that on a consistent basis and being trusted with so many different people's home-going services in Detroit and over decades, obviously,
10:27
[SPEAKER_02]: What has that been like for you and your family?
10:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Like does it weigh on you all at all?
10:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you kind of numb to it at this point?
10:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Like how does that work being a part of the industry?
10:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think to a certain extent, like you can't take on your family's grease.
10:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be able to have sympathy for them, be able to assist them, but you can't take on because you'll go crazy.
10:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't take on their pain.
10:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are some instances where you don't have a choice.
11:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You're human, especially when you have children, that pass or there's something tragic.
11:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can't help but take some of that on.
11:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So there are coping ways that we have that just to kind of take a step back and kind of free yourself again.
11:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Have that reset to be able because you have to be strong.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't be falling out and crying with the family.
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to be there support system and help them.
11:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got to be able to, you know, even when it gets difficult, be able to stay strong to be able to support them.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And is that something that you've had to learn for yourself over the years?
11:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Or is that something else kind of talk to you through the business?
11:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't think it can really be taught truly.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has to find their own way.
11:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's really what it's been.
11:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just being able to find your own way to navigate certain situations.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes the grief aspect of it is the least of our worry sometimes like we're referees We're in there trying to, you know, just trying to calm situations down, break up by something that I'm deaf than deaf and marriages, I mean, that breaks out, you know, the worst of the time.
12:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like
12:13
[SPEAKER_01]: We have to be that referee sometimes and that's actually our podcast.
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We lost season one Just a couple months ago.
12:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you got podcast.
12:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
12:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the repass podcast.
12:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
12:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and we talk a lot about these situations like being in a range of an office And what happens when a fight does break out or certain situations from crazy funerals we've had.
12:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we've started a podcast to kind of
12:39
[SPEAKER_01]: tell that story that people don't see and explain the behind-the-scenes thing.
12:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
12:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Without giving away any identifiable information, what is the craziest thing or a circumstance that you have been involved in when it comes to a home-going service?
12:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And this I wouldn't say, I'll give you two.
13:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So one was there was a baby who had passed.
13:08
[SPEAKER_01]: the mother was in there with the baby and the next thing we're in the lobby and the next thing we know, she's carrying the baby down the hallway into the lobby out of the room.
13:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so she took the baby out of the cast and he cared so it was so and it was just like we just had to kind of take her say, come on, let's let's put her back.
13:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, let's put her back, but I think she was just so grief shocked that you know, it was just like I've got to pick my back out of home my baby.
13:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was one that was shocking and at the same time, heart wrenching because, you know, you've just got a feel for this mother who's just lost a child.
13:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
13:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, now crazy situation.
13:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've got a bunch of just off the wall.
13:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure.
13:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
13:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
13:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
13:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
13:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
14:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure.
14:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, that was it our chapel at our northwest chapel.
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: No, but in that is kind of a normal occurs.
14:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we'll get that all the time, people that get up and, you know, singing the wrong words or out of key.
14:17
[SPEAKER_01]: One story on our podcast, we actually had one of our chapel ministers who was saying how he had a gentleman that got up and was singing so out of key that he had to walk up and tell him, okay, it's time to stop.
14:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he got through one stance of the song and he had to come off the pool but it comes down and said, brother, it's time.
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's time to stop.
14:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
14:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, people at the crowd were holding their ears and he said, I just can tie it to try to shut it down.
14:46
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a stop him.
14:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, literally anything you can think of.
14:50
[SPEAKER_01]: We probably been through, especially just on the the mirror volume on the people that we service.
14:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have tons of services.
14:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, over so many decades,
15:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And I will let you know that you all are very special people because I know I couldn't do it I just wouldn't be able to work it for a lot of different reasons I somehow become the person that you can't sit next to at the funeral because I'm funny happening I'm probably going to start laughing because I have ridiculous some of the things is that you see I get your quick example, Mark
15:23
[SPEAKER_02]: grandfather had passed and then so I'm sitting in the front row at the service and obviously we're all grieving and going through our own things individually And so the pastor don't know where he came from.
15:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know who found them or where he came from but he was up there You could tell he lost his train of thought and he just was he just kept saying the same thing over and over and over again And I forgot what you say he was like kind of amen.
15:45
[SPEAKER_02]: He was like help me can I get a and he just kept repeating
15:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'd bust out like all I could think about if my granddad would sit next to me right now He would be clowning the AK would be clowning and so I just bust out laughing and then like my sister with guard laughing And people start laughing next to me my friends texting me like bro, what are you doing?
16:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like you know here this man You know here this man talking right now, but it's just you never know like it's like you say So it's a mixed bag you never know what you're gonna get as far as that goes and and what grief and those time frames do the people because it brings out the worst in them
16:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, somebody bring out the best of them.
16:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes people be feeling too good.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you say, yeah, if you have people that don't come in and at the arrangement, they're laughing and cracking jokes and even at the funeral.
16:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, sometimes people are even laughing and joining themselves at the funeral.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So it all depends on the situation and then how people deal with grief.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes that's just how people deal with grief.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So they need to
16:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Crack a joke or they need to land that they are way of grieving.
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody agrees differently.
16:42
[SPEAKER_02]: For sure.
16:43
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you all create that confident environment to be able to let people know like, hey, you and good hands when y'all come here with us and like we got you because it's such a delicate dance in terms of those situations.
16:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So how do you all take their approach as making sure people know we got you when you use our services?
16:59
[SPEAKER_01]: providing the environment for them and giving them permission to do so tell them it's okay do you you know you don't have to do all of this today you can call back we can do all of this you know we can do some of this later um and just just literally giving them permission to go do as much as they want or as little as they want when they first come in and make arrangements or when the first person person first passes you know sometimes people assume we have to do so much
17:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think just giving them that freedom to grieve on their own, process things on their own.
17:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And also just let them know that you're there.
17:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So sometimes people have the misconception of a funeral home like we're just money hunger.
17:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna come in there and they go swipe our credit card.
17:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all.
17:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It would charge me for everything, right, right.
17:49
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think when with us is we provide the information.
17:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I know one thing that's different with our website is we have so much information on our website just about the industry period.
18:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You could be out in California and utilize our website to help you just because it provides information.
18:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So informing people is a big thing for me because this is something you're only gonna do a couple of times in your entire life.
18:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So in order to make a better customer, if you will, you have to have a more informed consumer.
18:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So the more information you have, the more freedom that you're going to have to make selection, you're gonna feel better because you're gonna understand what you're actually purchasing and the need for it.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Or what you don't need or don't want, you're going to understand that before you make that final decision.
18:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
18:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have any tips that you could share off the top of your head for families who are going to find themselves in those situations in terms of how to be the most prepared, appropriate questions to ask when you're working with funeral home, services, or trying fair, I wish the best fit for you.
18:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have any tips for those families that can be able to handle it?
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
18:58
[SPEAKER_02]: What I've learned
18:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And my own personal experience, you get to that situation, because you don't know who is going to be in the family, and you get to that situation, and you don't know what you don't know.
19:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So wondering if you could kind of help God people?
19:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, don't wait until a passing occurs.
19:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So especially in our community, we don't even want to think about that let alone talk about it.
19:17
[SPEAKER_01]: but death in taxes is going to happen even more so to taxes you're going to experience death you know not only yourself of course but you're going to experience death around you they're going to be people you know they're going to pass you are going to be a part of making some kind of you know range at some point.
19:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So why not educate yourself ahead of time?
19:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Even the little small things, what's a vault?
19:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me understand what the vault is used for.
19:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have to have a vault?
19:45
[SPEAKER_01]: New things like green burial.
19:47
[SPEAKER_01]: What is then?
19:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I want to do I want that for myself?
19:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, there's a green burial.
19:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So green burial is the natural burial.
19:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
19:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's either no cask and involved or a natural all wood or wicker cask.
20:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have to be in a specific cemetery.
20:02
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not many in the Detroit area that allow it.
20:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
20:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there's no vault or the outer container that can't, none of that.
20:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You just go straight into the ground.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a natural process.
20:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So you potentially, if there is no like wooden casket situation, you would just be putting the body straight into the ground.
20:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And some of them do that.
20:18
[SPEAKER_01]: The bodies we've wrapped the body in a shroud and they lowered just the body into the ground.
20:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
20:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yep.
20:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a couple of different ways to do it.
20:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Depending on the cemetery you're at, what their regulations are.
20:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, it's something that's becoming more and more popular as people.
20:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm wondering why, because that seems very 1800ish.
20:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm wondering, like, what the whole green movement, you've been more environmentally-conscious and they think that, you know, caskets, it's metal, it's going to go in the ground, it's going to, you know, pollute or be negative to the environment.
20:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Really, it's not, but I mean, that's the mentality behind it.
20:58
[SPEAKER_01]: as quick as possible.
20:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanted, you know, my body'd be broken down and go back to the earth as quick as possible, where if you're in a case, you're involved, that's the whole purpose of it is to slow that process, but some people want the opposite.
21:09
[SPEAKER_01]: They want to be, you know, broken down and go back to earth quickly.
21:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's where that would come in.
21:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Got you.
21:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
21:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And then so over the years of you are doing these services, do you have any
21:21
[SPEAKER_02]: any marky services or people who services that you have been interested with either in Detroit or maybe folks not from there oh yeah i mean you know i'm better on a hundred and six years so we've done a lot of dignitaries over the years you know a lot of
21:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Detroit's, you know, prominent figures that we've serviced.
21:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I mean, we've, we've got a ton.
21:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've got a ton, even, you know, Motown, we're right next to our Boulevard, okay?
21:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Right next to Motown, right?
21:48
[SPEAKER_01]: We've done quite a few Motown artists.
21:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember just stores in my family, back in the 50s and 60s when we were literally,
21:58
[SPEAKER_01]: like just 10 feet away from Motown, both buildings are right next to each other.
22:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So we would my grandparents stayed in the upstairs, part of the two family flats.
22:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're on the downstairs, then they stayed upstairs.
22:10
[SPEAKER_01]: So my grandma said, oh yeah, I used to hear them performing out front of Motown and practicing their songs and things like that.
22:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the one thing about Detroit is our history is so rich.
22:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
22:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And especially with family businesses that are still surviving, you can tell those stories like you go back generation.
22:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, you know, our family goes back with Mary Gordy when he before Motown was Motown when he was first developing the label.
22:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we were, you know, right there next door with them as they were coming up.
22:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So even back to the early 1900s before my family started the funeral home.
22:47
[SPEAKER_01]: There's stories, there's newspaper clippings of prominent Detroiters, Black Detroiters back then, and my great, great, great-grandfather being that the precipice and helping back in the late 1800s and help with the civil war movement and things like that.
23:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I mean, it's just, like I said, Detroit history is just unmatched in my opinion, so, and being able to keep our roots alive is what's critically important.
23:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So being a business for 166 years, I would, my, my would tell me that it's probably easier for a funeral home services business to be able to stay in business that long because obviously people are going to continue to expire over time.
23:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I just think about business in general and, you know, one bad business mistake or the business decision that could crumble any organization regardless of what the industry is.
23:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm wondering for you and your family, what do you feel like has been able to keep that motor going over these last hundred and six years?
23:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I think just that willingness to serve like that's kind of what's been ingrained in us throughout the generations is that we are a service to the community even more so than a business were a service to the community.
24:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you service to people, if you make sure the service you're providing is top notch and you're making people.
24:08
[SPEAKER_01]: happy even in their time of sorrow, then they will return to you.
24:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we're very generation and after generation and the same families because we do provide that service.
24:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think when you look at it that way, where more so than a business, it's a service, then that's how you keep your legacy going.
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
24:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But also you have to be willing to take on the business.
24:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be willing to work in.
24:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there are tons of generational funeral homes that are going out of business because that next generation doesn't want to take it on.
24:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no succession plan in place to be able to say, okay, well, what do we do if the kids don't want to run this?
24:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So do we bring in a general manager?
24:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we sell it?
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing there.
24:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So so many funeral homes.
24:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Even black historic black funeral homes, 120 years old are on the verge of closing not because of lack of business or something went wrong.
25:04
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's nobody there to continue it.
25:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
25:06
[SPEAKER_01]: and they would prefer not to sell to like a big conglomerate because they're not going to have that same little respect for their name.
25:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
25:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So rather than, you know, take that risk and having their name eventually, you know, run down, they would rather just close up shop.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And what challenges do businesses face that aren't in the funeral business, that in that industry?
25:28
[SPEAKER_02]: What are some of the challenges that you all have seen over these decades?
25:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Well right now in today's day and age is just the increase of costs.
25:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So everything has gotten so expensive.
25:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The casket prices themselves keep going up and up every year because raw materials go up and up and up.
25:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So people think when these tariffs win in place,
25:47
[SPEAKER_01]: that immediately affected casket prices because caskets are made out of metal and wood.
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you have to import these things, the supplies, that dicked it go as a trickle effect.
25:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to keep on coming down.
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And these big manufacturing companies aren't going to eat that cause.
26:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So it keeps coming on down to the consumer.
26:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So with us, we've always been aligned with, we keep our prices affordable.
26:13
[SPEAKER_01]: and it of course you have to go up in prices that's just the nature of business but we get to a point where sometimes we sacrifice losses because we don't want to go up so much so we've had raw material costs sometimes go up 12% over the course of a year and we ate over half of that because we just could not
26:34
[SPEAKER_01]: increase our prices that much to our clients.
26:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I think that's where we've been blessed as being able to still find ways to make sure, you know, we're not going in the red for the year, but we're still able to serve as a community and not, you know, raise prices so much.
26:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think, and that comes back to the dedication is being able to find other ways.
26:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
26:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes there are other ways where I'm just checking up prices there are things that you can do to negotiate and lower your costs to be able to pass that on to the consumer.
27:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Got you.
27:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Antonio, I do this with all my guests.
27:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to have some fun with you on here on Black Friday.
27:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So my favorite part of Black Friday is call freestyle Fridays.
27:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, all my guests got a wrap.
27:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So, so feel free to get started whenever you're ready.
27:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh.
27:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my lord.
27:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I've uh, so I, so I, in college, I crossed by Beta Sigma.
27:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, remember at one point, we had to me and my brother-line brothers.
27:40
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to freestyle.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And it didn't go well, they still clown me 25 years about that.
27:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I don't think I can do that Got a podcast Not less with that part That is that ability to think of my feet like that For sure.
27:56
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
27:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's perfect because we only do the rapid fire questions, which is what freestyle Friday is right now
28:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So what are you listening to right now?
28:04
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the invitation for you, musically?
28:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Music.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Music.
28:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So actually, I have really gotten into more Christian music.
28:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
28:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So I find like in the morning, I'll listen to a daily Bible verse and then I'll throw on a couple of Christians songs.
28:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I never thought like I never thought I would be that person listed to Christian because I mean, of course You know, go into church and things like that.
28:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the wrong But I just never thought that I would be But I mean that's yeah, I guess you know in your faith journey, you know, you're gonna come around Lord's going bring around some ways.
28:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah
28:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So that, in a lot of times, I don't listen to a lot of music anymore.
28:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm more into like audio books, any kind of good business books, so things like that.
28:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll knock out an audio book probably like every two weeks.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So if I do consume a lot of like learning that way, and then a good podcast too.
29:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's from great podcasts out there in the business world.
29:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess you're subscribed to Black Friday.
29:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, for sure.
29:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I will hit that soon and we get off day.
29:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate that.
29:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Appreciate that.
29:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And what would you, I know your author.
29:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So could you give us a book that you, that really it wasn't impactful for you or that you have read recently, that you would like sure.
29:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can give you a quite a few more.
29:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Or listen to what they say, audiobooks.
29:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
29:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody in business, there's a good, there's a great series by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Ben Hardy and it's 10X is easier than 2X is one of them.
29:43
[SPEAKER_01]: The gap in the game is another one, and they're threatening to the third one.
29:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But just look up, it's a trilogy series.
29:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, everybody needs to read that.
29:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And then probably my favorite book I've learned the most from in the last three or four years has been Dan Martell by back your time.
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: OK.
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy just the thinking, just how your perception of things can change.
30:10
[SPEAKER_01]: just by understanding how important how valuable your time is and if you're spending one big thing out of the book was if you're spending your time and more than what your value is so understanding how much is my time worth and literally he has a whole form you love you assign how much is your time worth and if you're going to do tasks that are less than that then you need to hire somebody to do that.
30:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so if you're, you know, if you're in business, we're working here at Hot Saves and I'm about to say, you're not going to charge me for this interview, right?
30:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right.
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just want to make sure, make sure we get on tape.
30:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, right.
30:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you're good.
30:48
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, if you get a little knowledge, but if you're work, if you're working here like a clothing store and if you are the owner.
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes no sense for you to be behind the cash register.
30:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Your time is worth more than process and payments.
31:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
31:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, some people may say, well, I need that personal touch.
31:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to be on the floor.
31:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, okay, I understand that, but is that more is your time worth more than talking to your customers or is it worth strategizing how are you going to do better marketing?
31:19
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you going to bring more people through the door?
31:20
[SPEAKER_01]: What makes more sense?
31:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
31:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So, any of your time on strategy or shaking hands with people as they come through the door?
31:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Got you.
31:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so those, those, those, those, those probably my favorite ones, and I'm reading um, Ray Dalio's book right now, so it's a long one, but uh, but it's a good one too, just understand, uh, the, the business behind business.
31:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and then last and not least, have you ever officiated a service for people like have you like, you know, like, you know,
31:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to call it host or M.C.
31:47
[SPEAKER_01]: But like the official, no, not that.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I have not done as the actual official.
31:52
[SPEAKER_01]: We usually will have like the ministers.
31:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
31:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Even when a family doesn't want a religious service, we still have a minister of fishy, because you still want that structure to it.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but yeah, yeah, nope, no, if I haven't gone down there, that may not be quite my calling.
32:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I can direct the service, but a fishy ain't the whole thing.
32:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't know.
32:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I understood what thank you for taking the freestyle Fridays and the randomness, and so as we land the plane here, see I called back to earlier.
32:21
[SPEAKER_02]: As we land the plane here, we'll love to know what's on horizon for James A's Cole for you personally.
32:29
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you see in your crystal ball for the future?
32:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, I don't want to give up too much.
32:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a five year plan that's pretty awesome.
32:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't want to give up too much yet.
32:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, have me back on the show in about six months.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will give you a little taste because I've got, like I said, I've got a pretty big five-year plan that is I'm executing now and I think in the next six months I can start sharing a little bit more.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Stay at stay tuned, but yeah, have you back at a few months that I'll share some and let you know how it's going?
33:00
[SPEAKER_02]: We gonna make it happen.
33:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Sounds good.
33:01
[SPEAKER_02]: For sure.
33:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So, working everybody fine, you all left their interest in leveraging your services for
33:05
[SPEAKER_02]: one of their loved ones or if they just want to be able to follow you and your journey social media handers website is what's all that good information.
33:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep y'all jameshcold.com is the website you could look up jameshcold on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok we got a TikTok channel now.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have any social media channels around mine personally is millennial guy on Instagram That's best place to get me and you know any questions were always open to answer questions So call us email us connect with us on social media.
33:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We're always willing to talk
33:38
[SPEAKER_02]: appreciate that.
33:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And like I said earlier, this was one of the industries that I know is obviously taboo in our community, but really grateful to be able to have a conversation with you all as a black on legacy business.
33:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And then also something that is not discussed enough in terms of our community.
33:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And also the business, that's behind it because there is a business.
33:59
[SPEAKER_02]: practice and operations that you all go to work in order to be able to provide these services.
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So I love hearing about the community focus of that and being able to willingness of servant, which has kept you all around for over, I'll about to say, wait, 100 years a decade?
34:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, essentially, essentially, yeah, essentially, there we go.
34:17
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, yeah, I'm about to say, decade, I'm like, not, it's not right.
34:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, essentially, that's why you all been a business that long because you, you start.
34:23
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, I appreciate you for coming on the podcast today.
34:25
[SPEAKER_01]: No, thank you for having me.
34:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just don't be afraid to have those conversations with the family and make it light hard.
34:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll have to always be serious.
34:33
[SPEAKER_01]: You can make it light harder, but at least start having those conversations.
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
34:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And everybody watching and tapping in, we appreciate you all for listening and we're going to talk to you all soon.
34:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Peace.
34:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks.