By Thomas A. Parmalee
If it weren’t for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Antonio Green might have been flying the friendly skies instead of serving thousands of families at the James H. Cole Home for Funeral Homes, which has two locations in Detroit, Michigan.
“My plan was to be an airline pilot and help out at the funeral home part time,” he said, noting that he’d initially considered majoring in aviation before realizing he could still pursue a career as a pilot while earning a degree in something else.
Ultimately Green, 41, who is married with two boys and a girl ranging in age from 5 to 12, majored in communication at Bowling Green State University in Ohio before earning his degree in mortuary science from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science in 2006 and receiving his Michigan funeral director’s license in 2007.
Along the way, he also earned a private pilot’s license and has fond memories of flying out of Blue Ash Airport in Cincinnati.
Green’s flight plan, however, took an abrupt detour after the cowardly attack on America in 2001. The entire aviation industry took a nosedive, and even though he was still in college, the way forward was clear: Fly high right where he was by turning his full attention to the family business.
A Rich Legacy to Preserve and Build Upon
Today, Green is the manager of the Northwest Chapel at James H. Cole Home for Funerals as well as the president of the James H. Cole Legacy Foundation, which gives back to the local community. He is also an author, public speaker and an executive coach.
“I still meet with families on a daily basis,” Green said, noting that he’s been in charge of the Northwest Chapel since it was built in 2010.
The firm, whose vast majority of customers belong to the black community, would not exist if it were not for Green’s great-great-great grandfather, James Cole, who moved North after being freed as a slave from a Mississippi plantation.
“The story was his mother passed after a yellow fever or cholera outbreak,” Green said, sharing the story that has been passed on in his family through generations. He noted that his great-great-great grandfather was actually the son of the plantation owner – a not so uncommon occurrence.
“So, upon her passing, the story is the plantation owner gave him the option to stay on the plantation or have his freedom,” he said.
That was in the early 1860s, and his great-great-great grandfather would have been about 13 or 14 years old when he was freed.
“He had a short stint in Tennessee and landed in Detroit,” Green said.
By the time 1903 rolled around, his great-great-great grandfather had made a success of himself, which the family knows because there is a 1903 newspaper article to prove it, calling him “the richest Negro in Detroit,” according to Green.
“He had created a merchant business in the form of livery stables and was able to use that money and get into real estate, purchasing properties and renting properties and apartments,” Green said. “He established this wealth for his family.”
According to the funeral home’s website, which delves into its fascinating origin story, it was Green’s great-great-great grandfather’s grandson – James H. Cole Sr. – who started the funeral home.
In 2019, the business celebrated its 100th anniversary. “It’s a momentous milestone for any business but particularly for one owned and operated by four generations of one African American family,” the website states.
Back then, Blacks found it hard to go to a funeral home that was not operated by someone who was also Black, Green said. The funeral home’s website states, “The funeral home provided a much-needed service to the neighborhood’s predominantly Black families who frequently were turned away by white undertakers.”
Green explained, “(My great-grandfather) founded the business to offer affordable services to the community. We have found letters from the 1930s from families that mailed in a thank you note, saying, ‘Here is the $3 payment for the funeral, and I promise to keep paying it off,’” Green said.
Over the years, families have often expressed shock when the funeral home advises them to do what is in their best interest, which does not always coincide with what is best for the funeral home, Green said.
Eventually, Green’s mother, Karla M. Cole-Green, the youngest daughter of James H. Cole Jr., took over the business upon her father’s death in 1991. She remains in charge as president, with Green and his brother, Brice, helping her manage operations as members of the fourth generation to dedicate themselves to funeral service.
The duty to work hard for what you want in life has been soundly instilled in Green. “My mom, she was always working six days a week,” he said. “My grandfather was the same way – even on Sundays, he came into the funeral home.”
While he always knew that he would join the family business “in some shape or form,” winning the respect of co-workers was no easy task, Green said.
“I was growing up in the business,” he explained. “So, I had people working there who remembered me as that little pipsqueak getting in the way. And now, a few short years later, I was at the point where I was supposed to be the boss or the person leading the company. So, I had to learn to bridge that gap to get the respect of some of the elders who had been there for 20 or 30 years. There were people who are here who I referred to as ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle.’ I had to get buy in and respect … and once they saw that I was there to work hard and was not there as a trust fund baby and I was just as dedicated as they were, after a couple years, I did get that buy in. And they gave me leeway to introduce new ideas.”
A millennial, it was his experiences in the workplace that led Green to write a book on how to work with and understand members of his generation: “Talk to Me: Understanding the Millennial Mindset.” You can download the book for free.
“I was going to conventions and conferences, and the common theme I heard at every single one was ‘those damn millennials … I can’t work with them, and I don’t know what motivates them,’” he said.
The book is an effort to give business owners a roadmap that will help them understand that millennial mindset.
Green delivered a presentation on the topic at the National Funeral Directors Association’s 2022 convention, which gave him his first experience on the national speaking circuit. “Ever since, I have done tons of speaking,” he said, noting that he enjoys it because it gives him the opportunity to help others.
Not all millennials are the same, as Green explains in his book.
“I am at the very beginning of the millennial generation, and in my book, I break the millennial generation into two,” he said. “The earlier part of which I am a member are the X millennials and the latter members are the social millennials. The X millennials will bear more resemblance to the Generation X’ers, who grew up before the internet took hold. They remember checking out library books using the Dewey Decimal system.”
Those X millennials went on to high school and college, when the internet began to be more widely used and instant-messaging platforms exploded. So, they enjoyed “the best of both worlds” and are “able to switch gears,” Green said.
Social millennials can be more challenging for earlier generations to understand as they never grew up without technology or without being connected to their friends, he said. “They always had that interconnectedness and do not know the old school ways,” he said.
In addition to being that “pipsqueak” that got in the way of some of the funeral home’s current staff when he was younger, Green has fond memories of all the time he spent at the funeral home’s original location on West Grand Boulevard, which is next to where producer Berry Gordy established “Hitsville U.S.A.,” which was Motown’s first headquarters and recording studio. Now, it’s the Motown Museum.
“Our original building was shoulder to shoulder next to Motown,” Green said. “There is literally a driveway that separates the two buildings. There was an insurance company next door.”
Eventually, the funeral home bought the insurance company’s building before tearing down its former location. It moved into the insurance company’s former building and expanded the parking area. Today, it’s flagship location is still next to Motown.
His mother and grandmother lived above the funeral home for some years, and they have plenty of stories about Stevie Wonder sitting outside and playing his harmonica on the street, Green said. Other artists would often practice outside while they were waiting to go into the studio, he said.
“You’d see random acts on the front lawn,” he said.
As for his role as president of the James H. Cole Legacy Foundation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, he noted that it was founded in 2019 to celebrate the firm’s centennial and to support community-based groups that seek to encourage economic growth and prosperity.
Initially, the intent was to support schools and underprivileged students, but the focus changed with the arrival of COVID.
“We had to drastically switch gears,” Green said, noting that the foundation provided meals to health care workers, firefighters and police officers.
Once the pandemic subsided, it turned back to students, providing school supplies and Grub Hub gift cards to older students, so they could enjoy meals after school. The foundation has also spearheaded Christmas giveaways and supported a battered women’s and children’s shelter.
The foundation stands ready to help smaller nonprofits or groups that focus on helping the Detroit community, Green said.
Lessons from the Pandemic
When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, it hit Detroit particularly hard.
The funeral home suddenly had to contend with serving more families than it ever had to before in a 90-day period.
“Outside of New York and New Jersey, we were the hardest hit area right off the bat … it was insane,” Green said.
What made it even harder is that some staff members felt uncomfortable reporting to work. They were scared.
“But we got through it,” Green said, who added that there were points that the funeral home was working with only 40% of its staff.
“The No. 1 thing the pandemic taught us is there is nothing we could not do,” Green said.
It also taught the family that it could operate leaner and meaner – in the aftermath of the pandemic, the business has made it a point to “trim a little of the fat,” Green said.
Even during the hardest of times, however, faith has helped Green push through to brighter days.
“I grew up in the Catholic Church, and Mom has always been a devout Catholic,” he said. “God is first in foremost in our lives. When things get hard in the business, you have to fall back on faith to get you through it.”
One thing that Green has realized over the years is how blessed he is and what an important and fantastic role the Lord plays in his life.
“There are definitely times when there is no way we would have gotten through things without prayer,” he said. “God will get you through it if you are doing the right thing.”
Boosting Business Operations
About 42% of the roughly 2,000 families the funeral home serves per year opt for cremation, but most of them buy a casket and have a viewing prior to cremation, Green said. Only about 15% of families choose what the profession would call “direct cremation.”
Helping families prearrange has become a priority for the firm over the years, Green said.
“Before 2008, we had more of a passive preneed program,” he said. “My mom would do a lot of prearrangements or meet with families.”
But then the funeral home teamed up with Blue Nebula Consulting, which has a partnership with Precoa.
“They were able to provide us with a hands-off preneed program,” Green said. “They take care of all the marketing … we just train a counselor on how to sell our products.”
The relationship has been going strong for more than 15 years, and the funeral home is happy with the results, Green said. “They have really helped us establish that preneed program – what we had before was pretty nonexistent,” Green said, noting that the funeral home enjoys being able to “guarantee that market share” without the headaches that go along with overseeing the program itself.
The funeral home has also focused on aftercare with Everything After, which Green and his family learned about after the company won the NFDA’s prestigious Innovation Award.
For years, the funeral home had been looking for an aftercare solution but with the volume it does, it did not find value in postcards and letters, which were cost prohibitive. “It was just not advantageous to do that,” Green said.
But the text-based solution that Everything After offers has hit the mark. “We saw that and were like, ‘This is perfect,’” Green said. “We implemented that pretty quickly, and it has worked out well.”
In addition to following through with a personal touch, the solution has also allowed the funeral home to learn about problems and address them quickly, Green said.
He likes that the program is not overly automated. “This is an actual person,” Green said. “We don’t have to worry about them not getting compassion or empathy.”
Another benefit of working with Everything After is it has resulted in a huge boost in positive Google reviews, Green said.
Even when a business is doing great, families are sometimes slow to give kudos unless they’re asked, and Everything After has been able to push people into that positive review funnel, he said.
As far as social media, it has used Disrupt Media for years, he said.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Like any business leader, however, there are challenges Green is still trying to conquer.
“I consider myself an innovator, and I always want to stay ahead of the curve,” he said. “I am always trying to figure out where our industry is headed and how I can get ahead of that. How do we use technology to better the business? To improve the quality of our staff’s lives and the lives of the clients and customers we serve. Those are the things I am constantly focused on.”
One way Green is trying to accomplish his mission is by developing an AI bot that families can communicate with via the firm’s website – something that he hopes to offer to other funeral homes on a subscription basis once it’s perfected.
It will do much more than answer generic questions – you’ll be able to find out what makes a stainless-steel casket better than an 18-guage or what specific services the funeral home offers, Green said. “You’ll be able to ask any question you want, and the bot will be trained to intelligently answer just like a person. It won’t be a traditional chat bot where you get these brief answers. We are in the final stages of training the bot and will do a soft launch on our website.”
He observed that “everyone is working on AI” but few people seem committed enough to “take a dedicated step into it.”
Asked what stands out to him most about being in funeral service, Green said it’s those families that come back whenever they are at their lowest point.
“I have had families I have seen four or five times over the last 10 years,” he said. “They continue to come back, and it is almost like they are your family – they don’t want to see anyone but you.” He added, “That just reinforces that we are definitely doing the right thing, and we use that to help our staff realize we are helping people. Sometimes, with the number of cases we do, it is hard to see that we are having an effect on people’s lives on a daily basis.”
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