Inside the Business of Death: What Nobody Tells You About Cemeteries

Shada Amoui was producing films in Los Angeles. Her father spent his career as one of the loudest voices in funeral pre-planning - and when he died suddenly at 68, he left no instructions for his own funeral, and no succession plan for the cemeteries he owned. Shada and her husband Timothy were given two options: sell, or run it. Every single person told them to sell. Instead they moved back to Atlanta and took over 50 employees, a business that still ran on fax machines and paper slips, and an operating account with less than $50,000 in it. Three years later, not one employee has left, and Tim says something he never expected: he loves it. In this one: what a cemetery is actually worth, why you can’t advertise one, the “dirt mafia” that cost them a fortune, the truck that exploded while they were overseas, and what owning this business taught them about dying. Lincoln Cemetery — Atlanta, GA. Their CNBC feature linked below. Subscribe for new PodCrash episodes every week. Want more Matt in your life? Of course you do!  (https://www.instagram.com/mattebertcc/) (https://www.facebook.com/MattEbertCC) (https://twitter.com/mattebertcc/) (https://www.tiktok.com/@mattebertcc) (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ebert-7169a5180/) Get paid while you learn on the job at Crash Champions: https://step.crashchampions.com/ 00:00 "Death and taxes — we serve one of them" 00:46 Our first husband-and-wife guests 01:44 She was producing films in LA 03:28 The call that changed everything 04:19 Two choices: sell it or run it 05:09 The godfather of pre-need who left no plan 08:36 "Okay, Shada" — how it got decided 09:29 Everyone was shocked they took it 11:10 Three generations of the family business 13:45 "Are we just going to sell it like he was trying to?" 14:37 "I love it, and I never thought I'd say that" 16:20 What they actually walked into 17:12 Fax machines, paper slips, and no email 19:47 Why cemeteries resist change 20:38 Financials nobody could make sense of 22:21 Day one fear: we can't close for a single day 24:05 Under $50,000 in the operating account 25:49 "Please don't leave me" 27:31 Not one person left 28:21 Catching the cemetery bug 30:05 Would you go back to the old life? 30:56 The sharks circling after he died 34:24 How to kill a dinner party 36:06 "Cemeteries are for the living" 40:22 Why they don't own funeral homes 42:06 Easter egg hunts in the graveyard 42:57 The FedEx driver who refused to deliver 44:41 Running a business with your spouse 47:17 Expecting their first child 48:08 The truck that exploded while they were in England 52:26 The dirt mafia 54:57 "If something is free, maybe it shouldn't be" 55:49 Who's the boss at home 57:47 Growing a business you're not allowed to advertise 59:15 Heritage: what actually makes a cemetery valuable 60:58 Serving entire family trees 63:32 How this changed the way he drives 65:14 Living through her father's death 67:53 Mentors, not competitors 70:28 Where to find them