How Jake and Rob Met – Just Pick Up The Phone

Jake and Rob reflect on how they were first made aware of each other in the mid 2000s - Tom Johnson and Google. For more information about Funeral Results Marketing, check out the website or contact Rob at [e-mail] or at 1-800-810-3595. For more information about the Johnson Consulting Group, check out the website or contact Jake at [e-mail] or at 1-888-250-7747. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake, how are you today? Jake Johnson: Hey there. Good. Rob Heppell: Good stuff. Hey, that was a great first episode, just reliving the last 18 months of our journey working quite closely to get other more so. But I think I thought in this one and we did talk about it a little bit, but I think there's some great stories about how we first got to know each other, and also too, from our different perspectives too. And basically, what's happened in the last, I guess, 15 years or so of getting to know each other and kind of bringing us up to the point of working with each other a year ago, starting a year ago. Jake Johnson: Right. Rob Heppell: So now to jump right in, I think this... I knew of you and your dad back there in say the mid 2000s. And I was in San Francisco, so this is 2006 and I had been writing some articles for... At that time I was just trying to get exposure. So I was writing some articles for RON HAST. And so Ron used to have the mortuary management magazine and he was hosting a little conference and this still happens today, but there was the CANA event going on in San Francisco so that it's in the summer. And so he decided and since he's from San Francisco to have his own two-day event ahead of that to kind of capitalize on all the funeral folks coming into town. And he had Tom Johnson speaking at this event. Rob Heppell: So I wasn't speaking, I was just attending. But I did have a couple of other goals by attending this event. And then I was actually speaking at CANA a few days later. But what I remember is your dad's at the front of the little conference room that we were at, we're at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, I believe in San Francisco. And so Yes, your dad is presenting and he's having technical issues and everyone, he's looking at Ron and Ron was older than your dad. And so he didn't have the answer so I kind of volunteered. And this has happened. It doesn't happen as much anymore. I think it's because technology's a bit more reliable than it was. So I came up and got him figured out and got on his way. Rob Heppell: And I still... And I remember part of his presentation and I've spoken with you since about this, but where he was talking, and Jake's, were with our business evaluation and he's it's not just simple math and so many calls these times. So many dollars is what we're going to pay you for your business. And he was talking about your little upticks here and there. And since that time, you've shown me to the degree of these things that are just minor, but they can sway evaluation up or down. But it's just kind of neat and I've always remembered that part. And with that, the neat thing about that event was Ron, he had a social time up top of the Drake and he... And I met some folks there. Rob Heppell: I met Mark Matthews and Sean Douglass. And then also then when that wrapped up, right before I left, I interviewed Ron because I was doing my little Funeral Gurus video. And so I interviewed him about Jessica Mitford because Jessica Mitford wrote The American Way of Death, kind of a negative take on funeral service. And so I just wanted to get his take on it because I knew that, and this is kind of a funny thing I said, now Ron, I do know that you had a bit of a relationship with Jessica Mitford. And he said, Rob,