Bryce Bunker

He grew up in Mesa, Arizona and graduated with highest academic distinction, Summa Cum Laude, from Arizona State University, where he researched the brain of those impacted by Alzheimer's Disease. He moved to California, but the family business eventually called him home to Arizona. He is the youngest of six children and now is a husband to his wife Ashley and a father to three. He is the sole owner of Bunker Family Funerals and Cremation and recently was presented with the 2021 Visionary Award from the Gilbert Chamber. He is Bryce Bunker.

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Episode Transcription

Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and rocket space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service for person podcast studio guiding growth today, Sarah, are you ready for this one?

I'm ready. Are you sure are you ready for this one? I am so ready for this one. This is gonna be great. So we've got someone today who grew up in Mesa Arizona and graduated with the highest academic distinction, summa cum laude from Arizona State University where he researched the brain of those impacted by Alzheimer's disease. He moved to California but the family business eventually called him home to Arizona. He's the youngest of six Children and now is a husband to his wife, Ashley and a father to three.

He is the sole owner of Bunker, family funerals and cremation and recently was presented with the 2021 Visionary Award from the Gilbert Chamber. He is bryce bunker bryce bunker. Welcome to the show, It's good to be here, I appreciate you being on the show today. Sorry that you have to have sarah shenanigans this morning but that's just how the show goes. So prepare yourself but buckle up, It's going to be a good one. Alright, we are going to kick off the episode with what we call rapid fire round here we go your hobby of choice.

Oh um watch sports, that's kind of boring but that's not, that's a good hobby. I'm a huge Sons and Cardinals fan. So those are those are the two. Yeah, yeah, beautiful. It's a nice change. All right bryce phone call or text message. Text message. Most annoying sound in the world allowed motorcycle like really really loud motorcycle or car. Especially like in the middle of the night when you're trying to yeah or just like you're just having a conversation and it goes by and it's like crazy, crazy loud, not I love motorcycles and in cars but like the loud, loud ones, I don't know what it is, I have not, I've asked this question a dozen times, I haven't known what my answer is going to be until you said that and I agree wholeheartedly.

That's a rough one. Alright so next one favorite things about Gilbert poor thing. Um just the community feel of it. I love, I love that, it feels like a sense of community. Um it's a great place to um to raise a family which I have three young kids and so that's pretty important to me is is having a great place to raise my family, there's good food which is always a benefit and we're just we just keep getting more good food so that makes me really happy but overall just the people, the quality of people relationships are everything.

So the good people around one day with any person living or not, who would it be? This is maybe not a popular answer, but probably jesus. That would be a great answer. I'm with you on that one. So yeah, I mean that would be okay. What song do you sing on karaoke night? You might have to sing probably believe by Cher how's that song go? Do you know? No, I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember. We'll come back to that one or, or uh zombie by the cranberries.

I love, I'm trying to think of the two that like annoying my wife the most when I sing them and that's, that's pretty much the two that I go to, I got an annoyance favorites. Got it. Okay, I'm with you on that one. Okay, best vacation you can remember. I just got back from watercolor florida and it was, it was wonderful. So that was, that was a good one to do water colors. No, it's this little master planned community in florida right by seaside florida. If you're familiar with where seaside is, I've never heard of it, but two of my brothers live on the east coast now and so they do more east coast beach trips.

Um, and so they pulled us out there for thanksgiving and it was, it was a magical place, good time. You didn't have to answer that question. That was a silly question then we do a lot of water colors in our house and so I thought that was a real question personally. Okay Dine in or delivery dine in a day with your best friend or a party with everyone, you know best friend. Okay final question glass. Half full or half empty. Half full. Nice. We get a lot of half fulls I think that's the right mantra for most and we're glad you have a half full with us today.

Thank you to phoenix Mesa Gateway airport for their support with nonstop service to 60 plus cities. Gateway airport makes traveling just plain easy visit Gateway airport dot com for more information Sarah. What do you want to know about this guy? Well let's go back a little bit. So you have an interesting journey to where you are now, especially after you graduate high school. You go to A. S. U. Studying specific proteins of the brain and then you go to California and then somehow you go into internet tech startup.

Yeah, she wants you to tell her attorney I think uh I mean it sounds like man, I got a lot of I think just nobody really wanted me and so I had to figure out where I could add value but or was it you I think I was more of the issue but yeah I just I was you know I think at that period of your life you're trying to figure out what, what really resonates with you and where you want to build you're yourself around from a career perspective.

And, and I always loved the idea of, of medicine and, and had a great respect for those who practiced medicine. And so that's initially what took me on the course to, to study biochemistry at the time, and um I had an opportunity to work under a doctor uh there, that I did some research and so I worked in the, in the lab there and then I kind of came, I started my family at that point in time and I was realizing that it takes really smart people to do those things and um and maybe I'm not, maybe I'm not one of them, but um and so I just really kind of had this moment where I thought if this is the only thing that I can think will make me happy and my career is doing this, then then I should proceed.

But if, if there's other ways, other things that I think that I can do that I'd be happy, then that might be a better, better fit for my family. And so at the same time, this internet startup was, was kind of coming together and, and they had asked me to be involved in it. And so I made the decision to move to California after I graduated and did that for a year and I think both, both experiences were really beneficial for me because I love the scientific process of having a hypothesis and then creating a way to test that hypothesis and and learning from that.

Um and then the nature of an internet startup, you, I think you're going to take over the world one day and be homeless the next and the reality is usually somewhere in between. Um but but it was a lot of fun and just taking risks, I think that was an important part for me is learning how to take risks and testing out different things and trying to find problems to solve. And so yeah, both we're both were great experiences for me. Okay, I've got a question that's personal for me, I've got a son who's getting ready to graduate and he's looking at colleges, you chose a s you why and what made you go that route?

Because he's a smart man, quiet girl. I actually, I started at Brigham Brigham young University in Utah. Um and then when I fell in love with my wife and was trying to convince her to marry me, she lived here and she was the breadwinner and I was going to BYU at the time and I uh I loved her more than a lot more than BYU. So I came down here and she was the she was the breadwinner for for our family as I went to issue. But I actually I loved my issue experience, so it was a, it was a good fit for me.

Okay, good, good. So the, the decisions you made in your college years, what influenced those like where did you pull from that? It was just instinct. We always, and I mentioned to you before I thought I was gonna be an architect. That's why I went to school. What made you go down those paths? What inspired you in those ways? Yeah, I think I touched on the the studying medicine and and the internet startup. But, but really what turned me to where I ultimately, I am now the family business.

Um, I'm the youngest of six kids and I have for my oldest passed away and so I have four living siblings that are all incredibly talented and and chose to do different things with, with their life. My dad always kinda had a rule, it was if if you want to come back to the family business, graduate from college, go work for someone else and then come back and and his reasoning for that was he didn't want anyone to feel like they had to, Well my, my brothers are all are very, very bright educated, talented, talented guys.

My sister at the time was focusing on on building her her family. And it got to the point where my, my dad realized, oh man, I'm getting close to retirement age and nobody's come back to the family business and so he called us all together and uh, we, we had this family meeting and you may or may not know in the funeral space there is a lot of acquisition activity. And so whereas it traditionally was a very family owned, uh, owned business. Now, most of them are owned by, by either publicly traded companies or, or privately traded conglomerates or whatever it may be.

And my dad just simply said, I will not do it, I will not sell my business. And so I've got to figure this out. And it was at that point in time where I, I just had this introspection of why have I not considered this before and it's not that I hadn't considered it, but it was always, it felt like the easy way out, go work for dad and you're on this fast track because nepotism or whatever it may be, You know, I'm part of the family and um, and it just felt like the easy way out and then as I thought more about that, I just thought, man, that's really, that's really silly, you have an opportunity to do something that is incredibly impactful for people at the most difficult of times.

I've had the luxury of being able to watch a father do it with incredible compassion and all of his heart. And I thought, what, what do you want personally just had to value, what do I want out of my life, is it to make a difference in people's lives or elsewhere? And so at that point in time I just, I really thought about it and talked to talk to my wife and I thought it would be silly not to do this. So I love that you talked a little bit about your dad and how graceful he was with the others.

What was that like growing up in that world? Yeah, different, uh, different way of growing up when, when your dad's a funeral director and owns funeral homes. Um, and, and, and in a lot of good ways, I mean I'll never forget a trip that we took, we got in a car and we drove our whole family 14 hours and my dad got a call as we were pulling into it. We drove it Utah, we're going to go on a ski trip. And as we drove into uh to Utah, he got a call that a family friend had passed away and we drove him straight to the airport and he got on a flight and went home to be with them.

And so experiences like that. And as a kid, every time I answered the phone at my house, it was before everybody had cellphones. And so every time I answered the phone at my house, you're talking about the things that, yeah, those old things, you stick your finger and spin around away. I'm just joking, I'm not, I'm, I'm younger than that. But yeah, that's right. But you know, when you answer the phone, I didn't know whether it was going to be, you know, somebody a friend looking for me or a mother that just lost a child or somebody who just lost a parent.

So you just have this, I think respect and gratitude for, for life. And uh, so growing up in that environment, I think just gave me a very different perspective on, uh, on life in general, sibling dynamic now, now that you are running the family business, you're the baby of the family. How was that received by your siblings? I have the greatest siblings. I mean, we are, we are the best of friends, I mean legitimately best friends and we're all each other's biggest fans and we all support each other and we all have very different skill sets and, and different strengths and, and so they fully support me and they were very, uh, understanding the fact that they, they didn't want to do this and, and so there's no, um, there's no regret.

I don't think that they've, they've done it. They're, they're doing just fine for them for themselves. And so it's, it's great and I think there's this inherent pride that each of us have, whether I'm involved in the family business and my and my sister works with me a little bit as well. She, she does a lot of the advance planning and things, but there's this pride, I think that comes with being involved in our family business, whether you're involved in a day to day or not, just because we grew up with hearing from people, oh, you're, your dad took care of our family and there's like this kind of reverence and respect that comes with that.

And so I think they're all happy that, that I do it and then I took over the family business because there's still a connection there for them. I like that I got, here's another selfish question I asked this because I'm thinking your story, I'm listening and going, man, this could be me someday because I have some kids and I have some businesses and sure was there a stigma about that as you guys were growing up? Like there's no way we want to do this or was it like taboo to like think about that idea of taking over the family business?

I mean, I'm curious because I have no idea what my kids think, but this is very interesting. No, it wasn't. Um I think at some point in time we probably all thought we would because I'm fourth generation, So it went from great grandpa to grandpa to dad to us. And so I think it was more of a surprise when you had the Aha moment of, I don't think I'm going to do this than it was the inverse of thinking, you know, I definitely don't want to do this.

Um and so yeah, being in a long story, traditional family, uh, family business or generational family business. I think it was more of an aha moment realizing you're not going to do it than you are. What do you think would have happened if you didn't come back? Like you ever thought about that path? Like where things would have gone? Yeah, I think about it all the time because I think, you know, my life would be dramatically would be dramatically different. I mean this is who I am.

It's, it's woven into the fabric of every part of my life, drives pretty much every conversation I go, you know, with, with everyone wherever I go and uh, and when deaths are part of every aspect of your life, it changes things, you know, it's a, it's a significant thing. So yeah, I think about all the time, but I have no idea what the answer is of where I would be, hopefully I'd be doing something good and impactful, but who knows that tech startups still going, no, no, it would have been that would have been that, no, it wouldn't have been that you face tragedy and loss on, on a daily basis and yet you are positive and you have to lead others to stay positive as well and your team.

How do you do that? Yeah, I mean, I mean it starts first and foremost with having a great team and, and we have exceptional people who I have the utmost respect and love and admiration for, and I think that's that's part of it is loving the people that you work with. Uh it's it's not easy. Um, you know, just like, just like everyone else, when you face tragedy day in day out, it wears on you. It's a grind. Um, it's not your role or your time to to grieve or two to show that grief necessarily.

And so I've, I think I've gotten pretty good at compartmentalizing it. Um, when I come home, I'm dad and your jungle gym or whatever it is and you have to be present and be that that person and I try to leave work where it is. But uh there are times where it's where it's a challenge and I still am learning how to compartmentalize those those emotions and be all in when you're there because you don't, people will ask, do you get, do you get cholesterol or or, you know, kind of numb to to death.

And the answer is absolutely not because if I do that, then I'll stop being good at what I do. If I stop caring then that that's a really, really bad thing. So it's, it's still for me learning how to be emotionally all in when you're dealing with the family and then be able to transition to uh to happiness as quickly as as possible after, but leading people again, it's it's about having, having the right people in place and then always trying to be positive and reassuring them constantly that what they're doing is impactful and it's important and it's valuable and uh they really are, funeral directors are exceptional, A good funeral director are exceptional people and people have no idea the amount of time and emotion and uh sacrifice that that they make for for what they do.

It's it's it makes it easy when you work around people like that. So let's flip that coin for a second because you mentioned there was a loss in your family. How do you un compartmentalize it when it's Yeah, so, great question I am, that was, he's my oldest brother and I'm the youngest and he passed when he was four years old, so I wasn't here. Um but I can relay a little bit the experience of my dad. Uh so the story is, he was um he was on a tractor writing in the shovel, my, my uncle did construction and he ended up falling out and was, was run over and and passed away.

And so my dad owned the family businesses at the time and and how did I had to bury his own, his own son. But I mean it was obviously incredibly difficult, but he used that experience, I think as a way to fortify who he was as a funeral director and a gift that he could give other people, nobody ever can say I know how you feel. Um because I think grief is such a unique individual journey, but I have seen firsthand when parents lose a child or whatever it may be that my dad kind of walking a similar path.

There's this instant bond and connection. So I think, um, I think you use those difficult experiences to fortify who you are and the value you can add in your profession. It's interesting to me to think of the fact that um, the services you provide in the daily life of, of general population probably aren't even in the realm of thought. And then when tragedy does strike. Um, and I know this just from my own experience this past year, there's nothing more important than having the compassion of the, from the service providers, you know, for me it was with with your organization and your team and how thoughtful and kind and patient they were in time, that was just um, you know, beyond belief or understanding for our family.

And so I'm grateful to you and to your team. You do incredible work and it's so important and I can't imagine, I really can't imagine doing what you do every day. And it takes a special person to do that. Well, thank you. We got we got a good group of good group of people. So that makes it, that makes it easier when you've got each other too. So since we're going down this path coached me for a minute, William or maybe everybody that's listening. So what are the right things to say to people in those situations, I'm always lost for words.

And you know, hugs is about all I can do and I'm not a hugger. What what kind of things do you have to recommend? A fair question and I'm still figuring it out to every each individual is different, is different, you know? And and so just listen more than you talk. I think that's the biggest thing. We all feel like we need to say something, but really people just want to know that you care and that you love them. And um and so I think my my biggest recommendation instead of say this, I mean there's no magic, magic thing of what to say, but be there to listen.

I know, trust me. I would I would love to I would love to know. And there's things that you say to some people that are really, I think impactful and others, it wouldn't resonate well with them. So yeah, I wish there was a magic thing to say. But I think Green Eminem, huh? No, no, you just gotta listen, listen more than more than you talk a lot. So what are some of the craziest questions you get craziest question, What do you think Sarah asked you? No, it was actually I was inspired by Ben's last question.

So craziest questions I get. Well, I think for me it's not necessarily questions, but what people assume that I do on a day to day basis, I think when people think of like a funeral director naturally, there's like this draconian, you know, very outdated like musty image that comes to mind. Um which my goal is to break as many funeral stereotypes as possible in a lot of ways. That sounds like the embalmer kind of. Yeah, exactly, and so I think that's that's what people, when they think of like a funeral arranger, funeral director, that's what they think of and and we have incredibly talented people that are wonderful that that do you perform a lot of those duties?

Um I personally don't ever, so I think for me it's just the misunderstanding of what I do on a day to day basis, literally the only thing I think of is dan Ackroyd and my girl, oh yeah, there she would think of that. Okay, so let's talk about extracurricular activities that were important to you when you grow up. Um What were they, what did they teach you? Uh I was involved in an athletics growing up wasn't that good at him, but I did him nonetheless. Uh And what like what I played football growing up and I played basketball, I quickly realized that what position football I played outside linebacker, hitter?

Yeah, very average, very average one, but we were on some really good teams and I played with some really good Good guys and and so we had some success, but uh, yeah, but I think by the time I was a sophomore in high school there's not a huge market for a 58 on athletic guys. So I pretty much phased out and phased out of basketball pretty quickly. So there's only a few spud Webb's out there. Right? That's right. That's right. That's right. So, um, yeah, I think for me, the thing that was most valuable about that is just learning to compete.

I mean competition is important and everything that you do and it sounds, I think silly to say like, okay, what does a funeral director need competition for? But whether that's internal or external or with competitors are just wanting to be the best that you can be. I think going through that that process of extracurricular activities is incredibly important. And I don't, I mean now that I'm raising kids, I don't care what that, what that is for them. If that's playing an instrument and great. If it's been involved in academics, that's, that's great.

But I think just learning to compete on some level is beneficial for your entire life. You wouldn't mind a football player or basketball player? No, I certainly wouldn't. I certainly wouldn't mind. It's not looking likely right now. So, and truthfully, I, you know, it's funny how your perspective changes when, when you're a parent, you just want good kids, you just want kids make good choices and are good to people and kind and that's that's what matters most. But I certainly wouldn't turn it down if they had the exact same hobbies that I got it, I got it.

So the competitive side of you in your industry, is there a lot of competition or is it, I'm thinking about how marketing guy, Right, so I'm thinking about how you market this kind of industry. I would imagine people don't think about this until they need it. Yeah. So is it a lot of like um are you doing a lot of brand awareness? What kind of things are you doing to make yourself competitive in that? Absolutely. Uh from a marketing standpoint with with the funeral home, there's it's a multifaceted approach, just like it is with with most things and obviously there's there's a greater emphasis placed on relationships on a local level, but you still have your, you know, your pay per click advertising and all those kind of advertising things that you have to do.

But for me, because what we do is so personal and uh requires such a relationship of trust. My my strategy is always the more people that can know and understand that my staff and I are good people who truly care than the better our chances are. So that's one aspect of it, but on I think more of the entrepreneurial side of things. I we've made a conscious decision or or I have, we have, we operate multiple brands that all speak very differently to their value offerings to consumers.

And so I think that's been one of the biggest things to me is realizing that for so long every everyone that faced a death was kind of pushed through this same funnel but had these very dynamic and different uh, experiences that they, that they wanted out of out of the funeral home or whatever it may be. So it's been the discovery of finding out what those are and then creating different brands and different offerings around that has been a rewarding process, awesome. Is that a different approach than others in the industry take or what, what makes you different?

Um, I think what makes us different is that we, we are rare in the aspect that with our different brands, we speak to very different consumers. So, um, our, our bunker brands are, are very traditional. Again, we've been around since the early 19 hundreds and so our buildings, our traditional, um, our services are traditional. I mean of course we, we always try to be innovative and and adapting to family needs and, but when you think of a funeral home, it's, it's fairly similar to what you'd get at the, the bunker experience and then it's just to focus on the details there, you do virtual things now.

Absolutely, you have to, I mean through covid, you had to um, but then with, with the Gilbert memorial park project, I mean from an architecture standpoint and the experience we tried to create was really okay, give me a funeral home stereotype, and let's go as far from that as we as we can, and it within obviously within boundaries, but you have, like, a coffee shop now and all that stuff. No, but well, I certainly, yeah, we serve coffee there, I mean, we don't necessarily have a coffee shop, but, but I do, I do you know, I think I'll continue to to push the envelope more and more as as things progress and you learn, and uh, I do think there's this polarization that's happening in in funeral service and from this very, very simple and uh kind of, no, no fuss approach to uh, getting things taken care of, to a very dynamic experience.

That's um like we provided Gilbert memorial park. So, I think that that process has been fun, which is one of the reasons we started after dot com um is more on the exact opposite of what Gilbert memorial park is. So, which will it be one of your kids to take over the family business? Or is there someone else in the family that I don't know? I don't know. It's it's interesting because there's like, my dad desperately wanted somebody to take care take over the family business while simultaneously not wanting somebody to take over the family business, because it's hard.

I mean, it grant every every every job has its own challenges mentally taxing, but it's mentally taxing and it's 24 7 and um and like all the time and just dream, you write the energy, which that's right, I'm a little sensitive to that, you know, it's, I mean it's six days a week and then you get a call when you get a call on in the middle of the night on sunday and it's a number that you know, but you don't talk too often, you get a pit in your stomach right away because you know what likely is on the other end of that phone call and so yeah, it is a, it's a heavy, it's a heavy business but but it's great to so definitely, so what's the future look like for you now?

Um you've got a great path, you've got some great recognition for the work you've done, which I can see why now after talking to you, I didn't know your story until I that you're here. So what's the future look like? Yeah, great, great question. We'll continue to to be bold and innovative and and take risks and and continue to discover what is most impactful for people when they lose somebody that they love and that's not the same for every individual and so we will continue to to learn from the families that were fortunate to serve um and in all aspects in all of our different brands and continue to find ways that um you know that we can add more value to them and like I said, those, those experiences can look very, very different and so we've, we've done a lot of different things that have, have taken some of our business is very different directions and we'll continue to do that and won't, uh, we will never stop trying to find ways to add additional value so whether it's creating additional rooftops or expanding kind of our virtual footprint in some other markets that we're, we're working on right now.

Um well we'll see what the future holds but, but we're definitely pro Pro growth and figuring out ways to add more value in more areas. Last question for me, if you, um, let's say 20 years from now, one of your kids or nieces or nephews are running the organization, what's your advice to them? Um I think my advice to them um for my, for my dad, I, and I'm gonna answer this question a roundabout way, so I apologize, but my dad was the perfect person to purchase a business from as, as a child for one because he just loves me and supports me and so you hear all these stories about, you know about like family transitions and they're all pretty bad stories like mine hasn't been like that.

My dad's been been a dream. Um I tend to, I, I enjoy the entre entrepreneur, whatever how you get you get the idea. Um yeah, there we go. Um I enjoy that, that process and, and testing different things and finding different ways to add value. My dad has, it just has a service heart and spent his whole career just giving and giving and giving. So my advice to my kid would be no matter what you do, if you're going to be in this business, don't forget the core of what you're doing and that's that there's somebody that has lost somebody that they love, that's broken and needs somebody that they can count on.

You don't need to be a hero because they're, they're the hero and the individual that passes the hero of their own story, but they need somebody to walk them, walk them through that. And so I think that's what my advice would be is, is never, never get so caught up in and what you're trying to accomplish that you forget the core of what's most important that, that you need to provide a great service to that family. If I was interviewing your dad right now, what would you say about you and how you've been running the business man?

What do you think you think about that every day? You know, I hope, I hope, I hope he'd be proud. I think he, I think he would be, uh, you know, it's interesting before I, so I worked for my dad before I purchased the business of course, and in some ways it was easier to be motivated when I was working for him instead of for myself because I think no matter how old you get that inherent desire of a child too make their their mom or dad proud is still is still in there and and so hopefully I've, hopefully I've made him proud.

I've, I've certainly tried to but there are things that will never, I think there are things that that maybe our strengths of mind that that weren't a his and there are things that mhm they will never be able to do as well as him and yeah, hopefully I can do my best. Everybody drives different. Don't That's right, that's right, That's right. Hey, this has been a blast getting to know you and listening to your story. Thank you so much for sharing. I'm pretty sure Sarah had a few tears today.

Hard not to you do incredible things for our community and you do it so selflessly. Well thank you were certainly were certainly fortunate that people continue to trust us. So that's a it's an honor for us. Sounds good. Hey, so if you like this episode and you want to hear more subscribe to our tribe. We'd love to have you join us, get some of these in your inbox and stay involved. We appreciate you being here today bryce and thanks everybody for listening. Thanks guiding growth conversations with community leaders.

Ben, let me ask you a question, how do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it.

We'd love to hear from you, reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.