Beloved

We're center stage again! Beloved is thrilled to be featured in the latest issue of Funeral Business Advisor. Read the interview with Petra Lina Orloff here: You can read it here: bit.ly/35WYqqm

Want to reassure your audience and instill trust? Communicate clearly. Consider your language. Communicate with empathy and also, communicate with care.
1. STOP USING THE WORD UNCERTAIN. The more your audience hears and reads the word uncertain, the more uncertain they feel.
2. STOP SENDING MIXED SIGNALS. Your message is unclear when you use the phrase "uncertain times" and then also write something like, "we will be here for you." Times are not uncertain. We are in the midst of a pandemic. INSTEAD, tell people you will be here to support them during the pandemic.
3. STOP WRITING "WHEN THIS ENDS." Don't dwell in the future and speculate about what happens after the pandemic. You don't know how long it will last, or where things will stand.
INSTEAD, stay in the present and give people information they can use right now.
4. STOP WRITING "THERE IS SO MUCH WE DON'T KNOW." Don't contribute to the panic. If you are trying to reassure your audience, don't scare them at the same time.
INSTEAD, eliminate this kind of phrasing.
5. STOP USING THE PHRASE "UNPRECENDENTED TIMES." INSTEAD, write what you mean: pandemic or COVID-19. Also, the word unprecedented reads insurmountable. Again, you are sending mixed signals.

LIVE YOUR LEGACY NOW. John Jacob Astor, the first U.S. multi-millionaire, whose immense fortune was gained selling illegal drugs, systematically cheating and manipulating Native Americans, paying off politicians, and exploiting workers, died this week in New York City in 1848. He was 84. Today, his legacy in New York's real estate market is best preserved in the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel, built by his great-grandson John Jacob Astor IV, who died aboard the ill-fated Titanic in 1912, where his attempt to board a life boat with his new bride, a scandalous marriage in itself, was stopped by a ship's officer, who told Astor IV he could not board a life boat until all women and children were safely off the ship. Despite Astor's late life humanitarian efforts and post-mortem humanitarian efforts from Astor IV's widow, truth prevails, and neither man's legacy can be whitewashed.

The more information you have, the better.

What metro Detroit funeral homes are doing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic After more than 100 years in business, AJ Desmond & Sons funeral home thought they’d seen everything. But they have never seen this.

Petra Lina Orloff is bringing some Death Talk to New Mexico this week. We love talking about personal legacy and memorialization. Many thanks to Morris Hall, PLLC and Berardinelli Family Funeral Service.

Beloved's Petra Lina Orloff speaking at Detroit Death Talk - Royal Oak at Wm. Sullivan & Son Funeral Directors in Royal Oak. Can't wait for the next one at The Martenson Family of Funeral Homes in Trenton on April 28.