As Brent Cassity mentioned in his book, there were two divisions to N.P.S.: The counselor/outside agent division and the Advantage division. The agent division had been the backbone of the Company and the division that had built the Company. The Advantage division was created to not only further our expansion into additional funeral homes for counselor/agent sales opportunities, but also secure the sales that would come from a family simply walking through the funeral home doors and want a funeral prearrangement. As the Advantage division began to grow, Roxanne’s relationship with Brent and Jim Crawford became what I could only describe as cozy. My job became more and more difficult. Because of those cozy relationships, the two divisions began to work less and less like a team.

By the 1^st Quarter of 2000, I was spending more and more of my time dealing with issues involving the outside sales manager’s frustrations with the Advantage reps. The two primary frustrations were: the quality of funeral homes that the Advantage reps were making marketing commitments to, and commission overrides that had been previously being paid to the manager that were now being directed to be paid to the Advantage rep. The first issue really came down to a lack of communication between the two divisions and should have been easily corrected under normal business circumstances and would have been if not for the cozy relationship. The second issue was a little more problematic, but it could have been resolved as well. I had two options that I was attempting to convey but they seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

So, that brings me to Friday, November 30, 2001, and I was working my way back from East Texas feeling very good about some funeral home commitments that I had generated throughout the week that would open some great sales opportunities for us. I stopped at a Dairy Queen in Hearne, Texas to get a cup of coffee and sit down to write out some thank you notes for the funeral homes that had just signed with us. While sitting there, I received a phone call from Brent. He indicated that he would like me to come to St. Louis for a meeting on Wednesday, December 5, 2001. I told him that I had a workshop planned for that day but that I would reschedule it. I felt that it was very important to meet with him and further discuss the suggestions that I had for the compensation issue. It seemed a little strange to me that he was asking for the meeting when we were all going to be together in a couple of weeks in San Antonio for our annual Christmas awards ceremony. I just figured that he wanted to get this issue resolved so that it would not be a distraction in San Antonio.

I flew into St. Louis on the 5^th and went upstairs to Brent’s office and was met with a friendly exchange of hellos. He said that we would be meeting in his dad’s (Doug Cassity’s) office and that Jim Crawford would be joining us. We all sat down and had some small talk. I then began to discuss the frustrations that existed among our field managers and felt there were a couple of ways that we could address them. As I began to introduce one possible solution, Jim cut me off saying, “Mike, I think it is time for you to move on elsewhere.” I was startled but looked at Brent and ask the question, “Brent, do you feel the same way?” He said, “Yes, Mike I do.” With that, the meeting was over. 12 ½ years of fighting the battles with these guys and in fifteen minutes they put me on the street, jobless 3 weeks before Christmas.

There was no such thing as an ultimatum given to him about Roxanne. I knew for quite some time that because of their cozy relationship that was a battle that I would not win. I never had an issue with Roxanne other than her growing reluctance to work as a team player. 

Furthermore, as far as the lawsuit that I filed against the Company – it was filed in January of 2003, more than a year after my termination. This is a complete contradiction to Brent’s claim that it was filed the very week after I was terminated. It should also be noted that it was a wrongful termination suit and not a gender discrimination suit, and one in which there was a settlement reached for an amount significantly more than just simply deposition costs and attorney fees, as Brent has stated. Brent should have taken a steady dose of those new memory pills that are out on the market before he decided to write this book.