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By Jay Jacobson Funeral service is deeply human work. It’s about presence, compassion, and the quiet dignity we bring into some of the hardest moments of people’s lives. But there’s friction. Friction between tradition and innovation, between rising operating costs and the time families need, between the endless tasks of running a funeral home and the moments of genuine connection that can’t be rushed. That’s where augmented intelligence—AI—can be a partner, not a replacement

Phone-Based Childhood, Communication Gaps, and How We Train the Next Generation of Funeral Directors I spend a good portion of my time working with young professionals between the ages of twenty and thirty-five. They’re bright. Hard working. Motivated. Many of them genuinely want to become strong leaders. But when we begin working together, the questions they bring into the room are almost always about communication. “How do I give feedback without offending someone?”“What do

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, a day meant for celebration, yet it carries a tension that most of us miss. The streets of Jerusalem were alive with cheers, palm branches waving, people calling out “Hosanna,” and yet underneath it all, the most important work was just beginning. Leaders and organizations can learn a lot from this week if we pay attention, not just to the fanfare, but to the focus, presence, and sacrifice that undergird it.   Focus and Intention When Jesus

Why Leadership Is Measured in Ripples, Not Titles The meeting was quiet in that way that tells you something just went wrong. A young manager had missed a key deadline. Not catastrophic. Not fatal. But visible. Everyone knew it. All eyes drifted to the leader at the head of the table. He had two options. He could tighten the room with a sharp question and a raised eyebrow. Or he could steady it. He chose steady. “Walk us through what happened,” he said calmly. No sarcasm. No

What I Hope the Next Generation Never Has to Learn the Hard Way There is a particular quiet that settles over a funeral home before sunrise. The building isn’t empty. It’s waiting. Lights hum softly. The garage floor is clean. The white hearse with the black vinyl roof sits ready. In the preparation room, stainless steel surfaces reflect fluorescent light that has seen more humanity than most people will in a lifetime. Forty-five years in funeral service teaches you that this

Why Conducting Effective Meetings — and Separating Training — Is a Core Leadership Skill in Funeral Service I have stood in a quiet chapel before a family arrived. The lights were set carefully.The register book was positioned precisely.Music was cued, ready to begin. Everything appeared seamless. What most people never see is the meeting that made that moment possible: The ten-minute huddle that clarified who would greet at the door.The discussion that noticed a scheduling c

One of the hardest lessons in funeral service is learning that anger doesn’t always mean dissatisfaction. Sometimes it means shock.Sometimes it means fear.Sometimes it means someone is grasping for control in a moment where they have absolutely none. I remember a family years ago who scrutinized everything. Every word in the contract. Every line item. Every timing decision. They questioned my tone, my posture, even the way I answered the phone. By day two, I was exhausted and

What Childhood Empathy Teaches Us — and What It Sometimes Leaves Unfinished At Jacobson Professional Staffing, we spend our days at the intersection of people, performance, and readiness. We don’t just see resumes; we see how individuals show up under pressure, respond to feedback, and carry responsibility once the role becomes real. Over the past several years, a pattern has become harder to ignore. Many emerging professionals are emotionally articulate, values-aware, and th

Some books are read. Others are experienced. And once in a while, a book is spoken out loud by someone who has to sit with every word long enough for it to settle into their own story. When that happens, the work is tested differently. Not by reviews or rankings, but by the voice that carries it and the life behind that voice. That is what happened when Fred Lane stepped into the narration of  Lead by Legendary Example ; and what he discovered inside those pages might be the

The phone rings, and on the other end is a voice that isn’t ready yet. Sometimes it’s quiet and careful. Sometimes rushed. Sometimes guarded. Almost always carrying more weight than the words reveal. “We’re just calling to ask a few questions,” they say. Not to decide. Not to commit. Just to understand what comes next. This is where funeral professionals walk one of the narrowest lines in our work. Families deserve information. They deserve clarity about options, not confusio

The last hour of the last day of the workweek is often treated like a throwaway moment. People are packing up, mentally shifting gears, and thinking about what’s waiting at home. Many supervisors see it as a poor time for leadership. In reality, it’s one of the most powerful windows you have. When that final hour is used to offer genuine, specific positive feedback, it doesn’t just land; it lingers. There’s no next meeting to interrupt it. No immediate task to bury it. The wo

Why the future of funeral planning is less about age and more about timing, trust, and clarity For a long time, funeral pre-planning was framed as something you did late in life. A task reserved for retirement years. A conversation postponed until health forced the issue. That framing no longer fits reality. What’s changing in funeral service isn’t just how families plan; it’s  when  and  why  they begin thinking about it at all. The shift isn’t being driven by fear or morbid

Conversations from the front seat of the hearse There is a moment that happens in the front seat of the hearse that most people never see. The service is over. The church doors have closed. The family follows quietly behind. Somewhere between the church and the cemetery, the weight of the moment finally settles in. The urgency is gone. The public role is finished. And what remains is real. I’ve had the rare and sacred privilege of sitting in that front seat with clergy from m

If I could sit across the table from you for a few minutes, coffee cooling between us, phones turned face down, this is what I’d want you to hear. I’ve spent more than forty years in funeral service. I’ve stood in prep rooms late at night, driven hearses before sunrise, sat with families when words ran out, and watched this profession change in ways I never could’ve predicted. I’ve seen the best of it, and I’ve seen the parts we don’t talk about nearly enough. As this new yea

The New Year has a way of slowing us down for just a moment.   The calendar turns. The lights come down. The phone still rings, because in funeral service it always does. Grief does not take a holiday. Families still need answers, reassurance, and someone steady on the other end of the line.   But if we’re honest, January creates a pause. A breath between what we carried last year and what we are about to step into next.   And in that pause lives a question worth asking again

There are few sounds in funeral service that command attention like a ringing phone. It does not matter where you are or what you are doing. The call cuts through everything, because instinct tells us it might matter. Often, it does. For many funeral directors, that instinct has led to a long-held belief that they should be the one answering every call. Business phones are forwarded to personal cell phones. Availability becomes a badge of honor. It feels like commitment.It f

Every year, I see leaders post their reading lists. Stacks of books. Big ideas. Good intentions. And every year, I’m reminded of a hard truth I learned early on:most books inform us; very few  change  us. The books that actually shape us tend to arrive quietly. They don’t shout tactics. They tell stories that feel uncomfortably familiar. They slow us down long enough to ask better questions about who we are when no one is watching. That’s why, if you’re already thinking about

A Conversation with Jay Jacobson, Author of  Lead by Legendary Example - by Thomas Parmalee, FuneralVision Leadership in funeral service rarely announces itself. It shows up in preparation, restraint, consistency, and presence long before it’s tested in public moments. In an industry built on trust, the most influential leaders are often the least visible. That reality sits at the heart of  Lead by Legendary Example , a new book by funeral director, business owner, and lead

A quiet shift, a deeper calling I still remember when a family sat across the desk from me, papers neatly stacked between us, pens lined up like we were about to sign something important. Because we were. There was time to pause. Time to read faces. Time to answer questions before they were fully formed. That moment still happens. But less often. More and more, the first conversation happens on a phone. Or through an email sent late at night. Or on a FaceTime call from a hosp

"Practical, real, and deeply human. That’s how I describe Jay Jacobson’s new book, Lead by Legendary Example . This powerful leadership blueprint really hits home for me because it reinforces what I’ve seen in every great organization — culture is not built by policies but by people who lead with heart. Jay reminds us that leadership begins with presence, integrity, and daily consistency. It’s the same principle that powers any culture that rocks: people follow what they feel