I’m often asked “Who uses StoryKeeping?”

Because there aren’t a wealth of StoryKeepers running around, there is a quick learning curve people must travel before they completely understand what StoryKeeping is up to. I respond, “StoryKeeping helps people to capture the highlights of their loved one’s lives by conducting interviews and creating keepsakes for their family and friends.”

“Oooohhh. So you interview old people?”

StoryKeeping is for YOU regardless of age. The StoryKeeping mission is to capture the highlights of everyone’s life. As long as you are loved by at least one other person on Earth it needs to happen. No one tells your story better than you, and after you’re gone your loved ones and descendants would give anything to see you, discover what experiences formed you, and be able to hear what made you who you are.  Death pays no attention to your birth date, and the second breath leaves your body the story of your life is silenced forever. Unless, of course, it was recorded.

So what is StoryKeeping doing to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to pass along their stories? I brainstormed some factors that would play into people’s ability and/or willingness to commit to a StoryKeeping session. Here are the results:

Convenience – If it’s inconvenient people are less likely to do it. It’s important that the interview take place at a location that’s comfortable for the subject so that the convenience barrier is removed as well as increasing the comfort and quality of the actual StoryKeeping session. This is why StoryKeeping is willing to travel to people’s homes to conduct the sessions.

Affordability – A StoryKeeping session should be affordable enough for people of various social and financial levels. The quality of the session should be great enough to appease a higher taste, but options should be available to appease a tighter budget.

Worthwhile – Time on Earth is limited, so a StoryKeeping session needs to be a worthwhile use of time.

Agreeable to all parties – It’s important that the subject and the family member sponsoring the session find the StoryKeeping arrangement agreeable. The subject must realize that their family cares about them and want to have some sort of record of who they are and what’s important to them so future family members will know where they came from. The session sponsor must find StoryKeeping’s terms agreeable, whether those be pricing, quality, or turnaround time.

Best option available – A StoryKeeping session must make sense. If someone owns a professional video camera, video lighting kit, is a great listener and has experience with the equipment, and has the time to commit to the interview, they are probably better off conducting the interview portion themselves. If they have a computer with the hard drive, processor, and professional video editing software needed to produce high quality video, and the time to commit to such a project, they should do the editing and production themselves. As the process stands, people can save a good deal of money and a lot more time by trusting this undertaking to StoryKeeping. For someone to produce something similar, it would take thousands of dollars in equipment and hundreds of hours of research before the actual session could even begin. At this point, StoryKeeping already has a leg up, and as a result of our experience we can conduct the interview in one shot, edit, and produce in a fraction of the time it would take someone who doesn’t do this every day.

I’m sharing this brainstorming session with you because it’s important to understand the spirit behind StoryKeeping.  Also, if there are factors that have not been addressed please bring them to my attention.

Everyone should have at least one StoryKeeping session done in their lifetime.  I don’t want anyone to pass away before they create something like this to pass along to their loved ones.  If you’ve not yet done a StoryKeeping session, what has prevented you from doing so?

Send your thoughts to info@StoryKeeping.com and help StoryKeeping to achieve it’s mission of capturing the highlights of everyone’s life.