Meet Lisa Baue

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Baue. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lisa, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

When I was a young girl, my grandfather, the founder of our family firm, and my grandmother taught me what life was like on our family farm. We would spend part of our summers there as children. It was fun, but it was also filled with daily chores. From planting and weeding a vegetable garden to fetching eggs from the hen house, hand milking the cows, learning to fish, hunt, clean what we caught or shot, and learning how to cook the meat. According to my grandparents, who grew up during the Great Depression, you must do these chores, grow your own food and hunt on your land to be self-reliant and tough to survive when times get tough. When I was older, I was told I needed to help “break in” the ponies for riding during summer break to help get them ready for my younger cousins to ride. I was a lover of horses early on, but these little Shetland ponies were a bit on the mean & challenging side. Their names were Thunder and Lightning, appropriately. I hopped on the tiny saddle while my grandfather had them on a long lead rope. We went from walking to trotting, to bucking, to cantering, and more bucking. I ended up on the ground about every 5 minutes until the “buck” was out of them. My grandfather insisted I get back on each time and show the ponies no fear and who the “boss” was. I was bruised, sore, and many times in tears. Overtime, however, I toughened up and took control of the ponies to ensure they were rideable, so my little cousins didn’t get hurt. All these experiences I had on our family farm were great lessons in resilience and believing in myself and my abilities as a rider.

Since those years, as a funeral director and a business owner, there were times I wanted to give up, and times that were hard or when others tried to hurt me and my company. My dad died suddenly at the age of 53 when I was a young funeral director, just 30 years old. I was thrust into a position of management with a decision to be made if I wanted to buy the family business. I knew nothing about running a business or managing people. I was scared and felt so alone. Remembering the lessons I learned from my grandparents, on our family farm that taught me responsibility, to work hard and smart, and to be willing to do whatever it takes, served me well as a young adult. I knew I would make many mistakes along the way and experience failures, but I was not afraid of them. I had a great group of mentors to support me and a staff that stayed and became great teachers.

It is not easy owning and growing a business, taking on enormous debt, and being responsible for people’s livelihoods and well-being while continuing to serve families at one of the most difficult times in their lives. Becoming confident as a leader and owner took time, maturity, becoming a lifelong learner, experiencing many failures and never giving up on myself.

My lessons in resilience from our farm, especially the one on always “getting back on the pony,” served me well during my career. There were some dark times and tragedies that occurred along the way during my 38 years as an owner. I am grateful for my early lessons in resilience that helped me stay strong during them. I learned that during times of crisis, leaders need to remain calm, think clearly, and seek the help of others. It is one of the keys to operating a successful business.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As a third-generation funeral director with over four decades of experience, I lead the charge in the deathcare profession through my platform, Your Funeral Coach. I provide guidance, mentorship, and education to fellow professionals, focusing on innovative practices and compassionate care. My services include one-on-one coaching, webinars, and speaking engagements aimed at enhancing the skills and knowledge of funeral service providers.

When I sold my business in 2019, I wanted to create something to help the next era in my profession. During the pandemic, I began creating the concept of a coaching and development company that teaches those entering our profession how to improve and grow themselves as leaders, managers, and future owners. What I have found since I opened Your Funeral Coach is that the need is great. I hear from my clients that their generation is not being developed as future leaders as well as they would like to be in the workplace, and they are frustrated. Most of them are eager to learn and grow themselves and expected it to come from their employer. However, the worldwide pandemic created many stressors for owners, managers, and funeral professionals that even four years later, they are still working through. Many employers are so busy working in the business that the training and development time is limited. This is where Your Funeral Coach can help!

What excites me the most about my work is the opportunity to support and inspire a new era of funeral professionals. The ability to blend tradition with innovation allows us to provide meaningful and personalized services to families during their most difficult times. I find immense satisfaction in helping others grow and excel as new leaders in their careers, especially in a field as impactful and sensitive as deathcare.

My background and experience in ownership has led many young professionals, the majority whom are women, to seek my guidance as they aspire to become owners or managers and grow themselves in their leadership roles. They often don’t know how to begin and are looking for help in areas such as self-confidence, effective communication with peers and superiors, and learning to think, act, and become a manager or owner.
Your Funeral Coach is dedicated to continuous learning and adaptation. Our approach of next-era heart-based coaching recognizes this as critical to the next era of leaders, providing guidance, encouragement, and realistic answers to the issues challenging them in the funeral and deathcare profession. Professionals who receive next-era heart-based coaching need to be supported and championed by others who have succeeded in the field.
We understand that the profession has evolved, and seek to support and grow the next wave of business leaders.
This generation especially young women, are the future of the deathcare profession. As the host of ‘Your Funeral Coach Talks,’ a leading podcast in the deathcare profession, I bring together a diverse array of guests to share their insights on Leadership, Employee Retention, Marketing, and Business Growth. These conversations provide invaluable lessons to both my clients and the broader profession. You can listen to ‘Your Funeral Coach Talks’ on your favorite podcast platform.

With over 44 years of experience as a funeral director and business owner, I work with my team to provide coaching and mentoring to support and encourage the next era entering and thriving in the funeral and deathcare profession. We provide scholarships to the Funeral Service Foundation and advocate nationally for women’s growth and development as one of the key answers to our profession’s survival. We want to provide opportunities for these women to be part of something that will support them throughout their entire careers and help keep them engaged and excited to be in this profession.

We have several exciting initiatives in the pipeline:

• Upcoming Webinars: We are hosting a series of webinars focusing on leadership development, self-advocacy, and innovative practices in the funeral profession.
• Workshops: Our hands-on workshops offer in-depth training on various aspects of funeral service, from technical skills to emotional intelligence.
• Mission Statement Creation: We provide resources and guidance for funeral professionals to craft their mission statements, aligning their personal values with their professional goals.

Key Points of Our Approach:

• We teach the next era to become self-confident leaders and owners.
• We pick up where most schools leave off.
• We stay with our leaders from graduation throughout their careers.
• We come from an owner’s perspective and knowledge base.

We work with purposeful careerists, ambitious and determined women who are lifelong learners and hardworking individuals, striving to succeed in a challenged profession. As caretakers, they seek to make a difference in people’s lives during sensitive times, demonstrating compassion and dedication. Their ultimate goal is to create a path for themselves as successful business leaders, managers, and owners, driven by a desire to positively impact their communities and achieve professional success.

We believe that the majority of whom are women need to ne given more support that will lead the next era of successful funeral and deathcare services through a nationwide transition.

Your Funeral Coach supports them at every step.

We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter to become a supporter and participant in our community.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The Three Qualities Essential to Leadership: The Three Pillars I Teach

1. Heart:

– Embrace empathy and humility in your leadership style and decision-making. Serve and mentor others with compassion.

– Love and be proud of yourself. Show gratitude towards others and care deeply for those you serve and work with.

2. Head:

-Make well-thought-out, researched decisions. Set SMART goals annually and long-term objectives to guide your personal and professional growth.

-Commit to lifelong learning. Read, study, and acquire new skills. Hire experts in areas beyond your core competencies, such as attorneys, CPA firms, and coaching professionals, to provide honest and ethical advice.

3. Grit:

– Cultivate self-confidence and resilience to overcome obstacles, failures, and setbacks. Believe in yourself and seek support from trustworthy individuals.

– Recognize that life and business will always present challenges. Stay committed to your passion, plan your future as a fearless leader, and maintain a positive, optimistic, and realistic attitude.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

Predominantly it is the next era of women leaders, primarily Millennials and Gen Z, are making their mark in the deathcare profession. They are passionate about their work, committed to lifelong learning, and believe in continuous improvement. Despite working in a predominantly male profession, they are eager to become the next era of leaders. Many of these women feel frustrated in their current roles and aspire to achieve more. They seek development and growth opportunities and look for employers who will support their ambitions. Many dream of owning a business one day but are unsure how to make it a reality. They are in search of coaching and mentoring, which they often find lacking in their current work environments.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yourfuneralcoach.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourfuneralcoach/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourFuneralCoach
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-baue-333a658/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yourfuneralcoach2169
• Other: Podcast: https://yourfuneralcoach.com/podcasts/

  More about my Services: https://yourfuneralcoach.com/services/