I have to tell you, over the last three years I have given many responses to this question and feel without question that this was the best decision I have made in my professional life.
A little over 6 years ago we lost our Dad to brain cancer. It was an incredibly difficult experience that although painful at the time has helped shape me in may ways. Occasionally there are parts of death and grieving that creep up on me and make me address the deeper issues that are going on inside my head and heart, but overall my Father's death has helped make me a better person and even helped drive me in my professional life as well. Let me explain.
I have a great friend, Eric Battles "Battles", and those within the Precoa circle know him well. He is a legend. We both went to BYU, our wives are best friends (they were before we met) and we got married 3 months apart from each other. We followed similar paths while at school. We both graduated during the recession and good jobs were hard to come by for a lot of people. I followed in my Fathers footsteps and went into Real Estate and was successful even despite the difficult economy. I loved sales and goals and ultimately helped develop my companies highest end product, semi-custom and custom homes, mostly built in the greater Park City area. My office was on the 6th hole of a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course. As a family we built a beautiful home in the Heber Valley and thought we would be there for some time.
Eric went down another path. He got a job with a company called "Lincoln Heritage" (now Precoa) to sell Funeral Insurance. Yikes. The economy must be rough for Eric Battles I thought. Glad I am not in that position. Not only that, he would have to leave his friends and family in Utah and head to Portland, Oregon (could it get any worse?) My wife and I were pretty determined to get them back to Utah somehow. Eric and I kept in touch (via gchat mostly) over the years. We would get together when they would come back to Utah for the holidays and the summer. Whenever they were in town I would brainstorm job opportunities with him. He never seemed too interested, which always baffled me. Come on man. You work in the funeral biz.
This went on for months and one day we had a conversation that changed everything. After another one of our routine conversations where I tried to open up the opportunities of looking for jobs in Utah he said to me, "You know Jon, I don't think I plan on ever leaving this company..." I was stunned. What? Is he serious? No one and I mean NO ONE my age said things like that. My interest was suddenly peaked. I certainly didn't plan on staying with my current company for the rest of my life. If Eric (who I trusted and respected a lot) said something as serious as that, then I'm interested and needed to know more.
I think at this point we finally took our conversation offline and onto the phone. Things accelerated from there. I didn't mention this to my wife. How on earth was she going to understand this one. The funeral industry?
Eric began to talk to me about this amazing company. The two founders Bret and Mark and the incredible culture they had created. Honestly, it all sounded too good to be true (I'm usually a huge skeptic with the too good to be true stories). But somehow it was different. I don't know what it was but I was interested and knew I needed to fly out to Portland to see what this was all about. I must admit, I was more excited to fly up and see Eric and to be back in the Pacific Northwest for at least a day or two than I was to see this company at first, but I went into this visit with an open mind and wanted to check this place out.
I had a few other BYU connections that worked there (also, very strange to me) and my first night there we went to dinner at a great foodie restaurant downtown and headed to our friend Chris's flat in the Pearl District. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was a fun night reconnecting. These guys were young like me, but were passionate about changing an industry. Their passion and excitement for this "funeral company" was intriguing.
The next day I woke up early and headed into the Precoa home office. It was like love at first sight for me. I fell hard for this little "Funeral company in Portland." Every person I met had a smile on their face. They were warm and kind. They loved what they did. One of the first things I did that morning was head to the Planning Center (from the outside it seems more like a call center). Outbound calls to families to talk about planning their funeral in advance. Sounds dull and boring, right? It wasn't. These "planners" LOVED their jobs. Again, their excitement was contagious. You mean, you get here every day and dial 180 times and book 8 appointments a day and you are excited about coming in to work each day? This can't be real.
This was real. It was legit. These people loved their job. They were deeply passionate about helping these families plan their funerals. Why?
Great question. I think every great company has to start with this question and need to continually help their people understand why they are in business. If people know WHY they do what they do, they will be satisfied. They will work harder and they will be happier. At Precoa we believe in Prearranging All Families through ProActive Preneed by partnering with leading funeral homes all across the country. We do through this our company values of Kindness, Progression and Craftsmanship.
We could talk about the company vision, mission and values all day long... but we will save that discussion for another post. How many companies do you know have Kindness as one of their core values? Anyway...
Point is. They believe this. They live this day in and day out. This could have been an act, but it seemed completely real and authentic to me. At the end of the day there wasn't a position that directly correlated with my most recent experience and formal education. I had a degree in Advertising and a Masters degree in Real Estate Development. But I was the right cultural fit, and I wanted a seat on this bus. I also had this personal experience with death that I sincerely hoped I could use to help others.
After several discussions and another trip to Portland (this time with my wife so she could see what I was talking about for herself) we decided to take the leap of faith and to pack our family of 5 up and move to Portland, Oregon. Wow.
It's been 3 and a half years now and I've held two positions since working at Precoa and have loved both of them. Truly, I have LOVED my job. Everything Eric had talked about was true. All of it.
"So, you work for the Funeral Industry? How's that?"
It's awesome. I have absolutely LOVED working in this industry. While the reactions I get from strangers never get's old (and is almost always the same) my enthusiasm has only increased as the years have gone on. I love helping families get their final wishes in writing. I love helping funeral homes all across this country increase their preened business so they can serve more families in their communities during the hardest day of their life. I believe families deserve to have a great service where their loved one is remembered and and ultimately where they can gather and focus on what is next. Their personal Healing. None of us will escape death but we can prepare for this in advance.
My parents didn't do this. I don't blame them. They were young and when you are fighting cancer you exercise faith that you will beat it. You don't go to your local funeral home and take care of your arrangements.
I'll never forget the morning I woke up while my father was in Hospice and was days away from passing. My mom came to me and said, "I think we need to go to the Funeral Home". Having virtually no experience with death and certainly no experience planning a funeral I went with her to the funeral home and helped take care of my fathers arrangements. We picked out a casket, bought a plot, arranged the viewing. The whole thing was awful and hard. All of it. I needed to be there for my Mom and siblings but I just wanted to be with my Dad. Be with my wife and kids. Focus on what I was feeling and going through, but I couldn't. We had things to take care of.
You see, preplanning a funeral is not for yourself. It is for those you love and will leave behind, so they don't have to go through what I went through.
My name is Jon Lefrandt and I am a PreNeed enthusiast. If you are fortunate enough to get a job with this great company and to work in the Funeral Industry, than I am sure you will feel as I do.
Extremely blessed.
Eric and I celebrating our birthday last year on the golf course. Enjoying the #precoalife
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