Transcript From Our Video Interview with Kym Morosan at Outside the Box Eco-Urns.
Heather:
Hi everyone! Thanks for checking in with us at Funeral Innovations, Trends, Tips, and Technology, where we chat with leaders in the profession to discuss marketing trends, business tips, and technology innovation. Plus, we talk about how digital marketing helps you better serve your families. I’m Heather Mierzejewsk. I am the marketing director here at Funeral Innovations.
Alex:
And I’m Alex McCracken. I’m the VP of sales here at Funeral Innovations.
Heather:
And today our guest is Kym Morosan. She’s the owner and founder of Outside the Box Eco-friendly urns. Kym, thank you so much for joining us.
Kym:
Good morning. Thank you for having me.
Heather:
So tell us a little bit about yourself and what your business is, what you do, where you’re located, who you serve, that sort of thing.
Kym:
Well, my name is Kym Morosan. I’m the founder and owner of Outside the Box Eco-Friendly Urns. I started this about three years ago. I’m basically an independent insurance agent, but I specialize in Interline policies. And by doing that, I encourage and support, and educate people on the importance of green burials, which is something that’s new to the industry. It’s actually been around for a while, but it’s just now starting to kind of get a little bit more momentum and I just sit down with families and help them make a few choices and decisions and just let them know that there’s a lot of options out there that they may not know about.
Heather:
And you’re based in California?
Kym:
I actually dual-licensed. I’m able to write for California and also in Arizona.
Alex:
So how did eco-friendly urns start from this? I’m curious, was it the insurance side of things that pushed into the earn side of things or vice versa?
Kym:
I mean, it was actually the insurance that went into the, like I said, focusing on the advanced planning for pre-need funeral arrangements and some of the urns that I was selling, to be honest with you, it was a little embarrassed by the quality. And I was like, there’s gotta be something else out here. There’s gotta be other options. And I have a lot of creative friends that are in the woodworking business and glassblowing business. And as conversations would come up, they would create these little pieces that were just beautiful, unique, handmade, and they were using them for close family members and loved ones. And I thought, you know, there’s gotta be more to this. And the more research I started doing, the more I started finding out that there was a lot of options out there, especially for eco-conscious, especially for environmentalist. You know, a lot of us aren’t comfortable with the big concrete Volks and, you know, final resting being at such a standard type of a place. So I was really pleasantly surprised that there was a lot of options out there that really people I’m in the industry and I wasn’t aware of. So I just started doing a little bit more and just started promoting that more so with my business.
Heather:
So did you have a history in the death care profession before you started eco-friendly urns?
Kym:
Well, I was an active member of my church with church and community relations. And I did that for over 15 years and I was in charge of the funeral arrangements, coordination, and follow-up support. I also worked with Visiting Angels, which is a non-medical hospice. I enjoyed helping the families and just being able to be there for them. But my absolute firsthand experience was with my own husband in 2007, he was in the hospital for about two weeks and then hospice for three weeks and he passed away. I was able to deal with things in a surprisingly calm, comfortable way, and I’m sure it had a lot to do with my experience with church already, but I was involved with everything, you know, I was able to take control and just almost separate myself from the personal situation, we were able to have the conversations of what to do and what was expected, but it just kind of put me in a position of knowing that eventually, but that was something I was going to want to do was to be there for other families that were going through the same thing that I was. And it just kind of led me to the insurance, which, you know, put me in a position for the pre-need, which is what I wanted to do.
Alex:
That’s interesting. So when you’re, when you are working with this pre-need, are you partnering with funeral homes in the area, or are you just going alone or how, how does that work?
Kym:
I mean, there’s a few funeral homes that I work with and I prefer an only right for family-owned and independent because they tend to have a little bit more of an acceptance of the eco burial and they allow their families to be a little bit more, you know, a unique was final resting. There are a lot more open to different ideas and suggestions. So yeah, I do work with a few.
Alex:
And do you, how does that work with will you talk to anyone about the eco side of things or is it people know that when they’re meeting with you, you’re going to be talking about the eco-friendly side of things.
Kym:
It’s probably a little bit of both because people know that I’m in the funeral industry, but they don’t know exactly what I do. And then when I explained to him, you know, I do the advanced planning pre-need funeral arrangements, you know, that kind of will sometimes start a conversation. And then I introduced it by the way. I also specialize in the eco-green burial. And a lot of times it’s a comfortable casual, “Oh my goodness,” kind of attitude conversation, because people aren’t aware of that, they know that they have options and there’s so many things that they can do.
Heather:
Is there, is there a certain kind of person you find that is interested in the eco-friendly burial or what’s your kind of target market there?
Kym:
Most people who want to talk to me about advanced planning for any funeral are people who have recently lost someone and they’ve been in one position or the other either they had to make all in their arrangements and they know how overwhelming it can be sometimes, or all the arrangements were already made. And they were so appreciative of being able to be there for the family and, you know, have a different type of comfort, knowing that they did exactly what their family would have wanted them to do. So and a lot of them are, are widows. Luckily, a lot of people don’t want to leave these decisions and choices to their kids.
Alex:
In thinking about the eco-friendly urns, obviously, this is a natural green way of moving forward. Do you feel like your eco-friendly earns will change some of the ideas and practices around permanent memorialization? Or do you feel like that’s always going to be a part of this as well?
Kym:
I think it’ll always be a part of it, but I also think that there are a lot of people out there who are welcoming this, you know, there’s a lot of environmentalists, a lot of Outside the Box type thinkers. A lot of people who just want their final resting to be as unique as they are. So, and I, I think a lot of people would prefer their family members go to a spot at the beach instead of a cemetery, you know, maybe under a tree in their own backyard or something as far as like smelling a beautiful rose bush and that being a memory of them rather than a cemetery that they’re expected to go to on holidays.
Heather:
And can you give an example of like a story or a situation that you really remember being unique and that eco-friendly sort of feel?
Kym:
Oh my goodness. There are so few of them. To tell you my own personal experience. You know, we did everything traditionally because this was an ’07 and it wasn’t introduced to be about a lot of the options. So I basically went to a funeral home. Here’s what I need. I was a financially comfortable widow and I bought the biggest and the best in everything. I’ve gone to that cemetery two times with my kids and once was for the actual service and then one other time. And we prefer to go to the little league field here in our hometown. My husband was very active, was a little late for over 20 years. And when we were going through everything, the city actually went and did a Memorial wall and my husband was the first name to go up on it. And it’s just, there’s just such a different type of a feeling of comfort when the kids and I do go there, which is a few times a year.
And that’s what he would have wanted, you know, the cremation, the scattering of the ashes, you know, and there are rules, laws, and restrictions, and they differ by other States, you know, but you are allowed to be creative with the ashes provided it’s not in a public place. There’s a lot of things you can do in the backyard. She can do at family-owned property, a stage, you know, there’s just a lot of things. And one of the favorite ones is probably a family who lived on a golf course, and that was what he wanted to do. And it was on the 18th hole where they had the celebration and his ashes were actually just dropped in the 18th hole because he was never going to make it there any other way. It was his joke.
The other one that kind of put me in a position to do this and started the ball rolling was my own mother-in-law. She said that when she died, she wanted to be cremated and put in her favorite avocado, green Tupperware bowl. And that’s exactly what we did. So me and my sister-in-laws, both have these. They came in a set of four back then, and when did the little push top it’s that avocado green. And honestly, it sits up on the top shelf, kitchen cupboard for a lot of this. That’s what she wanted. And that’s what she did. Since that, and I’ve shared that with other people, I’ve gotten the same type of response, you know, somebody wants to go in a Jack Daniels bottle, you know, and he wants to be up on that fireplace. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with the big traditional vase or anything like that. If they’re going to go in something, they want it to be something that’s personal, reflects them. I want something simple. I want this. I’m like, okay, let’s put that in the planning guide so that your family will know, and it works.
Alex:
So I’m curious you know, you’re, you’re talking about the legalities of where people can put ashes and you know, what the options are and stuff. Do you feel like some of the options you’re providing with eco-friendly earns will help people understand more the legal aspects of what they can and cannot do?
Kym:
Oh, absolutely. I think a lot of people are under the impression it’s one or two things, you know, it’s either this cemetery or that columbarium, you know, they don’t realize the trees, you know, there’s the bio life trees now and just the biodegradable urns in general, you know, that there is a huge selection options out there. So I do think all the traditional things will stay, but I feel very confident that there is a huge, I want to say, excitement that there are options out there. So I do appreciate being able to explain that to families because they don’t know what they don’t know. And they’re like, “I can do that? I can do this? I can do that?” And I’m like, “yeah!”
Heather:
That’s great. So we talk a lot about marketing on this show. And tell me a little bit about what you do to draw people in, to use your surface? How do you reach people?
Kym:
A majority of it has been word of mouth. It’s been other families that I’ve helped. And my leads usually come from that. People have a little bit of confusion sometimes about pre-planning and at-need. So I do get a lot of at-need phone calls from family and friends because they do feel comfortable with me. I’ve lived in the same town for my entire life, and people have been through a lot with me as far as, like I mentioned my husband back in ’07 and I was very active in the church in the community. And so I do have a lot of relationships. So the majority of it is just through word of mouth from being in a small town. And the other families, like I said, that I’ve helped. And then not very many insurance agents promote their business the way that I do as far as what I specialize in educating and encouraging people. I explained the importance of pre-planning because it’s their responsibility to make sure those arrangements are made and not to leave it up to their family to try to figure out what they would have wanted.
And then of course paying for everything. There’s that ultimate question on who is going to pay for all of this. So it is your own personal responsibility and it’s the best gift that you can give a family. So whether they choose to do an eco burial with a biodegradable casket or urn, cause it doesn’t always have to be a cremation. There’s also the caskets that allow for complete burial of the whole body rather than a cremation when people aren’t comfortable with that still, but just getting it out there. You know, my main thing is just that pre-planning to relieve a little bit of that burden on their family. It’s such a hard time and then till share with them the options for the green burial.
Heather:
So what I heard there is it’s, I mean, it’s a lot of your personal connections that you use or connections from your community, but you also are very clear about what your niche is. So you’ve really differentiated yourself with that. And then also you have a good message on how to bring people in.
Alex:
So, Kym what do you feel like the biggest lesson you’ve learned is, and in this profession, you know, in your time as both as a pre-need consultant, but also as selling eco-friendly urns?
Kym:
Everybody has a story, you know, whether it’s good, bad. Some “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe that happened” type of a story, but once you get people talking about it and get them over the actual fear of the topic itself, they’re pretty engaging, you know, and I’d like to think that I have a presence of comfort where, you know, they want to talk about it. They want to share a story or two, and it kind of gets them a little bit more at ease with what they would hope for their own Memorial. You know, we don’t want everybody standing around and sad and you know, it is what it is and it’s going to happen, but there’s ways to approach it. And if you’re part of the planning, I think that there’s a lot of comfort and ease with that. Something that was shared with me a while back was, you know, you can’t get pregnant and talking about sex.
Well, let’s hope to think nothing’s going to happen right away. If we sit here and talk about a funeral and these are some choices and decisions that really need to be made now at a time when it’s nice and calm, you know, not need a situation where emotions and, you know, it’s just so much harder to do at an at-need. But I have learned that a lot of people want to talk about this. They want to be active in final resting as far as a few choices and decisions, especially the ones that have a sense of humor, especially if people that are unique in their own individual way anyway and would want to be remembered as simply they did that. But they did that. You know, I’ve heard so much over the past few years, people that have been able to plan something that was such a reflection of them, you know, whether it be a disco-themed Memorial, you know because she was the life of the party, type thing. And her brother was a DJ and this is what they did their entire lives. So that was the most appropriate thing that they could’ve done for her Memorial, you know, and those types of things. But when you look at it a little bit differently and you are allowed to make some choices and options, I think that that brings a little bit more comfort to it. And that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that once you get people talking about it, they do when to be involved with it.
Alex:
You know, that that reminds me of one of my favorite words. It’s “sonder”. And if you’re not familiar with sonder, sonder is the idea and the realization that every single person you see in your day-to-day life has a different story, completely unique story, you know, their own likes their own interests, their own fears, things like that. And it’s really powerful to understand that, especially in our profession. And it sounds like that’s a good lesson. You’ve definitely picked up there.
Kym:
Absolutely. And I learned that, you know, about when my husband passed and I said, and you know, I’d been in hospice steadily for three weeks and had left aside. And the first thing that I wanted after everything was done, and on my way, home from the hospital, or hospice was a chicken taco from our favorite little Mexican place, you know, and I walked into that place and I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I didn’t want it. I just wanted it to go taco. And we had used this place so many times over the years for baseball and parties and everything. But of course, when I walked in, the first thing that the owner says is, “where’s your husband?” And I just kind of looked at it. It was the first time in the only five hours then I had to verbally say, and I just kind of looked at him and go, “he’s not here.”
And we just went about everything and I got my taco, and I left. And almost two weeks later when we were planning the Memorial, it was kind of a no-brainer to call them, to have them cater the food. And I talked to the owner and I told him, I go, yeah, that day that I was there was when it had happened. And he was so surprised that I couldn’t tell him, I didn’t tell him, but I was looking around at the restaurant and all the people that were together and laughing and everything else. I remember thinking like what you’re saying, “I just lost my husband. Don’t these people know how sad I am?”
And it has always made me more conscientious about other people, because here I am ordering a taco from the favorite place, like another day to all these people around me. And I think the same thing when I’m out and about that, that person in front of me could be having the absolute worst day of their life and to be a little bit, you know, even more so compassionate to show a little bit more patience. And, and that’s one of the biggest things too. It comes up when I reflect back on that day when I’m having a little bit of impatience with somebody in line or anything like that. You know, you just never know what everybody’s going through. And I speak from my own personal experience with that.
Alex:
That’s great. Well, can we really appreciate you coming in onto TTT and sharing your experiences and your history and your story. And I took a lot away from it and we hope to see some continued success from eco-friendly urns and the adoption of the green movement as well. And so we appreciate your time today on TTT.
Kym:
Thank you!
Heather:
Yes. Thank you so much for joining us.
Alex:
If anybody is looking for any more TTT interviews, you can find this one and all the other ones on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/FuneralInnovations, feel free to like, and follow us there to stay up to date on all Trends, Tips, and Technologies in our profession. Thanks again, have a great day.
Heather:
Thanks. Bye, you guys.
