By Thomas A. Parmalee
Work in death care long enough, and you’ll meet some interesting people who once did something else.
Still, the story of Micah Brown is a little unusual.
A native of Kentucky, he graduated from Cumberland College in Williamsburg, where he earned a political science degree before embarking on a career as …. (wait for it) … a professional fisherman.
He did so well in striped bass fishing tournaments and as a pro, he ended up with his own TV show.
But after starting a family, something had to give: There was no way he could sustain the schedule that came with being a professional fisherman while being a devoted family man at the same time.
“Being active in my church and having served at church in some capacity, the opportunity came about to work at a church as a youth pastor,” he said. “I went back to school at that time (while working at the church) and earned a degree in organizational leadership.”
About 10 years later, however, he and his wife separated and he later remarried, moving to Somerset, Kentucky, where he began working in the cemetery industry with Sabre Management in 2014.
“I started carrying a sales kit and going door to door,” he said. “I soon got the opportunity to be a sales manager at a small cemetery in Somerset. A year later, I was given the opportunity to be a regional sales manager, then ultimately was given the responsibility of overseeing sales for half the company.”
Eventually, he crossed paths with Christine Hunsaker, who saw something in Brown and gave him an opportunity to be a partner in her company in Atlanta.
“Four years into working in Atlanta, the company was sold – and after working for the new company for a little over a year – I decided to start Legacy Memorial Group.”
FuneralVision.com was among the first to be informed that he’s just rebranded his company as Broylman Memorial Group.
“It was brought to our attention that there is another company with a similar name,” he said, referring to the Legacy moniker. “Their name is trademarked, and after discussing it, we decided the best thing to do was to rename the company. The new name has some meaning to us, but we prefer to keep that between our group.”
He’s looking forward to continued growth – and perhaps beyond strictly operating cemeteries, he said.
We recently caught up with Brown to learn more about how he started Broylman Memorial Group and his vision for the future.
How did you go about starting what is now Broylman Memorial Group?
Because I know that everyone needs people around them that are skilled at different things, I decided to invite my best friend of over 18 years, Chris Rickman (our CFO) and another friend of over 20 years, Robert Doyle (our CIO) to join me in the company. Chris is an expert at creating a vision for financial health, and Robert is very experienced in land development and property design. Their experience made it a perfect fit as we started out. Our first acquisition was in April 2024, and here we are 10 months later with 15 locations in Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, New Mexico.
When you started the company, what was your vision?
The overall goal of starting the company was to provide a fresh approach to the industry. The families we serve have evolved, and they look at the cemetery world and their needs within it differently than they used to. We believe it’s time that the profession and industry start to evolve with the families. We can’t knock on doors any longer because quite frankly people are scared when someone comes to their door, and they aren’t comfortable with it. People are presented with endless sales pitches daily and most people have become extremely resistant to it. Our goal is to provide a fresh approach that helps families feel more comfortable making decisions and ultimately refreshed after their experience.
Where do you plan on focusing on acquiring new properties?
We do have plans for further growth in 2025. We don’t have a certain area that we want to limit to.
How is the company funded? Personal funds, private equity, a partner, loans?
When I started the company, I had a vision to grow without debt. So, we are personally funded and have no debt at all. We use debit cards for our locations to be able to purchase things for daily needs, and we pay for things through our vendors when they are purchased rather than on 30-day terms. Doing business this way provides our company with financial health and peace of mind to make decisions on what is best for the company, our employees, and our families rather than what will enable us to make our payments to a bank, lender, or investor. Our projected growth in 2025 will be approached with the same strategy.
What was your biggest struggle or obstacle you had to overcome in starting the company?
The biggest obstacle for us, and I think it is the biggest obstacle in our industry, is that our industry has done a really good job of promoting people that have performed well over the years.
What the industry has not done such a good job with is recruiting new talent and developing those people to become future leaders. Now, we have a lot of people retiring and not very many that are trained to rise and take their place. While this is somewhat of an obstacle, we have been able to turn it into something that we believe gives us a competitive edge.
One of the things we decided to focus on as we began was recruiting quality, professional, and talented people from outside the industry to come and learn about the cemetery world, so they can grow personally and professionally. This has really served us well in the areas of accounting, HR, our sales team and in leadership. As we grow, we plan to continue with this strategy and look forward to watching people grow.
How do you go about training people from outside the death-care profession, so they have the tools to succeed in doing something different?
I have used an illustration for a long time, and it is this: I am 6’2″ and weigh about 320 pounds. I have a 2″ vertical leap. Someone could hire Michael Jordan to come train me how to dunk a basketball, and at the end of the training, I won’t be any closer to being able to dunk than I was before I started.
The same applies to ours or any industry. You can train someone about what we do and how to serve the families we serve, but you can’t teach natural professionalism, you can’t teach natural work ethic, and you can’t teach someone how to naturally communicate and relate to people. Those are naturally within a person, or they aren’t.
So, our preference is to find people that have those natural abilities, bring them into our industry, and help them develop in a way that enables them to be successful at what we do. And so far, it has served us and our team well.
In January, you acquired the assets of eight cemeteries in Arkansas and another in Tennessee from Anthem Partners. How did that opportunity come about?
The opportunity with the acquisition with Anthem came about through developing relationships. In our industry, it is important to build relationships and work together. In this case, those things helped to create the opportunity.
What do you look for when considering whether to buy a company – and how would you describe your ideal partner?
When looking for a business to acquire, I believe it’s best to simply stay open minded. I have found that it’s best to be very self-aware. Know what kinds of opportunities your skills are best suited for and when those opportunities come up – be prepared. One thing that can hinder growth is to have an opportunity and not be prepared to take advantage of it. That’s one reason it works so well for Chris and Robert and I to partner together. The three of us have different skillsets and those skillsets combined keep us prepared for opportunity, day-to-day business, and hopefully the unforeseen things that are inevitable as a business grows.
Is there a book you’ve read that you would recommend others read? What is it and why?
One of the best books I’ve ever read is “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” by John Ortberg. It is important for Chris and Robert and I to keep things in perspective and for our priorities to be in line. We are Christians and following God’s plan for our families and our business is important to us. We know we won’t always achieve this goal to perfection, but our goal is to strive to be as close to hitting the mark as we can.
This book gives some great insight into those priorities and how to be more encouraged and less discouraged when you find yourself a little off track. Hey, we don’t claim to have all the answers, and there will always be a lot to learn. But the three of us believe that if we can keep our eyes pointed in the right direction, we can get where we would like to go in a much safer and more enjoyable fashion.
If you want to reach Micah Brown, you can contact him via email.
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