Lisa Baue

09/03/2026

Wake-Up Calls just received one of the highest honors a book can earn. The 2026 NYC Big Book Award named it a Distinguished Favorite in Death & Dying, standing alongside some of the most meaningful voices writing about this profession today. ✨

This book was never just my story. It’s the story of every woman who has stood in the arrangement room second-guessing herself, who has led with her whole heart while wondering if it was enough, who has shown up for families on their hardest days while quietly building the confidence to lead. This recognition belongs to all of you.

100% of the proceeds continue to fund women’s scholarships and Funeral Women Lead Foundation initiatives, because the goal was never the award. The goal was always you and what you’re capable of becoming.

Grab your copy and let’s keep writing this story together.

Cheering you on, always! 💛

08/26/2026

Before she was Dolly Parton, she was writing songs for other people to sing.

That's the part of her story that stopped me this week. A woman who grew up with nothing, built an empire, and never once forgot where she came from or who helped her get there.

We honor her today alongside Women's Equality Day, because Dolly Parton never waited for anyone to hand her a seat at the table. She built her own.

I sat down and wrote about her life, her humility, and what she teaches all of us about building something lasting without losing yourself along the way.

Link in comments, I hope it resonates with you the way it did with me.

Dolly Parton built an empire out of a childhood that had nothing to spare, and she never once let anyone forget where she came from. That's the part of her story I keep coming back to, especially today.

08/21/2026

I cried in a room of people I'd known for exactly one day.

A coach had handed me a blank piece of paper and asked me to draw my life, every climb, every drop. My line had more drops than I expected. Baues don't cry. We get back on the pony. I fought those tears with everything I had.
I lost.

That moment taught me something I'm still unpacking: head, heart, and grit only work when you use all three. For most of my career, I only used one.

Read this post then tell me: what are you waiting to feel ready for? 👇

Years ago, a coach at a leadership retreat handed me a blank piece of paper and asked me to draw my life. Every high year climbing up, every hard year dropping low, one long line from where I started to where I stood that day.

08/13/2026

Disney taught me how to run a funeral home. ✨

Before anyone at Disney interviews for a job, they watch a video showing the exact dress and appearance standards, down to how many rings per hand. They sign off before they're even hired.

I came home and built the same thing for my own team, because we'd been handling appearance issues case by case, reactively, after the fact and it wasn't fair to anyone.

Clarity before commitment is one of the kindest things you can offer another person. Vague expectations set people up to fail, then punish them for it. Clear ones give them the chance to succeed.

Standards can be high and human, though. When my team told me they were freezing at gravesides in hosiery, I listened, and we changed the rule.

If you lead a team: do you have written, visual dress standards? Do new hires see them before their first interview? If not, that's worth fixing.

Here's what we built, and what I'd tell you to build too. 👇

I learned one of the most useful things I ever applied at my funeral, cremation and cemetery company from an International theme park company, Disney. At Disney Institute, a behind-the-scenes leadership program, I learned how Disney hires, trains, and sets expectations for their "cast members.

08/06/2026

If the culture around you doesn't feel kind, if gossip travels faster than recognition, or if your name only comes up when something goes wrong, I want you to hear this clearly: you are allowed to want better.

In this post, I'm sharing the exact commitments and recognition system we built at Baue's after my own hard look in the mirror as a leader. Kindness has real structure to it, five commitments and a system for living them out loud, week after week.

Read how we built it, line by line.

Cheering you on, always!

Kindness gets talked about a lot in funeral service, and I think that's part of the problem. It becomes a word on a poster in the break room, something we nod along to without ever building it into how we actually operate.

07/30/2026

I asked my team to rate me as their leader. A full 360, no filters, every direct report weighing in.

What came back broke my heart, and then it rebuilt my entire leadership.

I cried in front of a room full of my peers, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to my company.

If you're leading a team right now, you need to read this before your own version of that moment arrives. 💛

You can build a mission statement around compassion, train your team on it, and repeat it at every staff meeting. We did all of that at Baue's, and we still had to learn, in the hardest possible way, that compassion has to travel in both directions before it's real.

07/23/2026

She told me her idea got dismissed in a meeting. Twenty minutes later, a man said the same thing and got praised for it.

Then she looked at me and asked, "Is there something wrong with me?"

There isn't. What's been called your weakness in this profession is actually your most powerful asset, and after 44 years, I can tell you exactly why.

There's a distinction between sympathy and empathy that most leaders never learn and I'm breaking it down in today's post.

Read the article below. 👇

I've heard it more times than I can count. A woman in a coaching session tells me she's been passed over for a management position.

07/20/2026

Thank you Kates-Boylston Publications for this post and opportunity to spread the word about what Funeral Women Lead is doing to help support women in our profession. 🧡

07/17/2026

I sat down with Mary Barnett for the premiere episode of the Death Care Marketing Show, and we went straight to the heart of it, employee burnout is costing funeral homes far more than they realize, in reviews, in referrals, in the families who can feel the gap between what your brand promises and what your team has energy left to deliver.

I know this because I lived it. A 360-degree evaluation once told me my own staff didn't feel I truly cared for them, and that wake-up call changed how I led for good. When I made the shift toward listening and developing my people first, our retention climbed past 98% and our growth followed right behind it.

With mortuary school graduates now over 75% women, this shift in workplace culture isn't optional anymore, it's the competitive advantage.

Watch the full conversation below.
https://youtu.be/7Nf5xk7h_4o

What if your biggest marketing problem isn’t your website, but empl...

07/16/2026

I didn't feel ready the first time I had to. I'm not sure any of us ever fully do.

In my latest newsletter, I'm sharing my recent conversation with Literary Titan, where we get into trust, instinct, and why waiting to feel prepared might be costing you more than stepping forward would.

If you've ever held yourself back from an opportunity because you didn't feel "qualified enough" yet, this one's for you.

🔗 Link in the article

I have spent more than 40 years in funeral service and deathcare. I've buried the version of myself who thought she had to know everything before she was allowed to lead, and I've spent the years since making sure other women don't have to wait as long as I did to let that version go.