Friday, November 28, 2008

Legacy Consultant Experience

If someone believes that life story preservation is a good and important thing to do . . .and who does not . . .work as a part-time Legacy Consultant may be for you.

Whether you do the occasional story every few months or treat the experience like a near full time job (three or four or more engagements per month), there may be something for you in service as a Legacy Consultant.

The work itself is not technically difficult. All that is necessary is a an open mind and an open heart. Preparation is key - and the Priceless Legacy Company helps you do that with tools like the Subject Profile and the Interview Guide. Once you have prepared, all that is left is to organize and scan photos, conduct the interview and then manage the book draft approval process . . .

But when you deliver the LifeStory book to the client and subject, there is no feeling like it anywhere. Through your efforts you give the gift of life in a manner of speaking.

If this sounds appealing . . . get in touch with us and give it a shot!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving Greetings

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the ultimate holiday to highlight the spirit and purpose of Priceless Legacy. With no gift giving or other distractions, we are encouraged instead to contemplate family and gratitude.

There is also a timelessness about Thanksgiving. A sense that there have been many before and that there will be many to come. We enjoy family fellowship and almost ritual story telling.

We never want to contemplate the inevitable cycles of life, but we know that change comes whether we like it or not. What will we have of our loved ones when they are gone? What can we pass on to our descendants?

As you are thinking of these things, please help our young company identify people who will enjoy the work of a Priceless Legacy Consultant.

Sure they can make some extra money and build a profitable side business, but you will know a future LC by the degree to which they really enjoy people, respect their stories and derive satisfaction from helping.

Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful for friends, family and acquaintances who can help me spread the word about the need and solution for life story preservation.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Only Failure is not Finishing

We all know the expression "something is better than nothing." With life story capture this is especially true.

Too many people obsess over the "hypothetical comprehensiveness" of their life story or personal history when they should really be more concerned with starting and finishing their basic work.

A simple life story is as important a gift to the future as a multi volume professionally written memoir. In fact, a more condensed and pithy work is actually more valuable.

So please don't use the excuse that is not worth doing if it is not comprehensive and definitive. . . while you are incubating that perfection you may find that you leave nothing at all behind.

And that would be a shame.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Three Obstacles to Life Story Preservation

Three factors are the primary obstacles to the completion of life stories. Two are human attributes and one is economic. We know these factors as procrastination, perfectionism and price. I started the Priceless Legacy Company specifically to address and overcome these alliterative enemies. In subsequent blog posts I will address each of these in turn.

Price

Price is the final and only economic factor that gets in the way of accomplishing life story and lesson preservation.

Official biographers and ghost memoir writers have been around since alphabets were invented but they were always the privilege only of the very wealthy. In recent decades a cottage industry of "personal historians" has also emerged. The personal historians (some of whom are, like me, members of the trade association called the Association of Personal Historians) are typically diligent, earnest and effective. What they are not, to generalize, is cost effective.

Because individual personal historians work alone in most cases, they do not enjoy the benefits of scale and brand. By offering both, Priceless Legacy is able to significantly lower the cost of producing a high quality LifeStory package. We have disaggregated the tasks associated with custom book production. Some are left in the field for the Legacy Consultant to deliver (selling, interviewing, photo archiving, draft approval) and others are centralized at the PLC corporate entity (layout, production, technology, billing, printing, customer service etc.)

Just like a quality off the rack suit at Nordstrom or Brooks Brothers is a better value than a custom made garment at an independent tailor, so it is with our offering.

Perfectionism

Perfectionism is the next factor that prevents people from completing life story preservation projects. Too many people believe that a life story has to be a literary memoir, a comprehensive biography or a complete accounting of their life.

Think back to our ancestors. If we had but one page survive from a great-grandmother that said nothing more than "Joe went out to the fields to day to plow, little Mary's fever still hasn't broken, the blacksmith in town died, and we still don't expect cousin Jim to come back from the war . . ." Would we not think of document as the most amazing family treasure? Yet in our own generation we tend to think that "oh, I am just not that interesting . . . no one would want to hear it."

Imagine three generations from now when a great-grandson sits down to read a Priceless Legacy LifeStory book and says, "My great-grand father was so interesting. For forty years he drove a fossil fuel burning car to an office in a tall building twenty miles away. He interfaced with his computer by tapping on a letter set device called a key board. That is so cool . . . and yet I recognize so much of myself in him!"

Priceless Legacy removes the barrier of "perfectionism" by making the LifeStory Package creation process very easy for the client, subject and Legacy Consultant. We also encourage people to focus on the key stories and in most cases describe the highlights of their life story in a two hour interview. It is not at all that some people might want to talk longer. Rather, it is the observation that while most people put off the creation of the "perfect" memoir; they end up with nothing when time or ability runs out. Our client and subjects are universally ecstatic with their LifeStory books. The only failure or disappointment is not starting and completing one.

The "perfect" book that is neither started nor finished is of no use to anyone.

Procrastinaton

The relationship of procrastination to life in general is well understood and almost universally observed and practiced. Almost all of us put off to tomorrow things that we really should do today. Exercise, financial planning, cleaning and organization are all clear examples of activities that we know are good and necessary yet we find ways to rationalize the delay of initiation and therefore completion.

Life story preservation or personal history is highly susceptible to the forces of procrastination. For starters, we rationalize that having waited seventy or eighty years of a life to play out, what can be the harm of another few months or years of delay? Furthermore, the urgency that we understand to be inherent in the need to capture life stories is related to the "elephant in the room" that we don't want to address, and that is the inevitability of the subject's ultimate death. Ironically, in order to avoid the conversational topic of mortality we risk losing forever the opportunity to preserve the humanity and worth of that loved one's life story.

How classically and tragically human of us ... we risk what is vitally important to avoid what is slightly uncomfortable.

Priceless Legacy addresses the issue of human procrastination on multiple levels. First is to relentlessly draw attention to the need for life story presence. We will tirelessly evangelize the need through our company communications efforts and those of our Legacy Consultants. For their part, the LCs will also cajole, nag and nudge people in their communities both by celebrating positive examples and highlighting lost opportunities in order to strengthen "never again" resolve.

Like fitness advocates who can preach to us to the point of annoyance, we must be clear and repetitive in our message. And like the audience for health and fitness, there will be many who do not hear our message. But if we can influence one we can influence thousands. . . .and that is what we will do until we have tamed the beast of procrastination in such away that it is no longer an effective excuse to delay the start and completion of a life story.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Pegasus News

A web news site called Pegasus News ran a nice piece on Priceless Legacy: click here

It is fitting that Pegasus News was one of the first news organizations to cover our new company. Their mission, as I understand it, is to cover news on a “hyper-local” basis. The theory is that people care most about news and information that is local and intimate. This makes for small markets will intense focus and "stickiness." I agree with this premise but look beyond simple geography for evidence of this fact.

At Priceless Legacy, we know the bonds of family and time to be even stronger than the power of place. It is curious how we often know so much about the location we were raised and yet know so little of those who came before us. That is why we are so firmly dedicated to the mission of helping people preserve their life stories for the benefit of future generations. The old cliché is accurate, we can only know where we are going if we know from where we come.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

National Day of Listening

The good folks at StoryCorps have established Nov 28, 2008 as the first National Day of Listening. See www.nationaldayoflistening.org for details.

StoryCorps has recorded more than 40,000 life stories in audio form and has done great work in highlighting the dignity and worth of every life. Priceless Legacy is dedicated to these principles too. We are a for-profit enterprise in the sense that we think the profit motive will encourage even more people to become involved. The more Legacy Consultants who are active, the more life stories we can capture. While simple in concept, life story capture does take effort and time and we think our Legacy Consultants should be paid for both. That said, StoryCorps, like Priceless Legacy, understands that the primary satisfactions of helping people preserve their life stories are intangible in nature and not related to money.

So, please find time to record one life story on Friday, November 28. Whether for Priceless Legacy or on a pro bono basis, this is work worth doing.

The Economy and LifeStory Capture

Some business friends have said to me "What are you thinking by starting a business dedicated to preserving life stories in a turbulent economy like this?"

I have to confess, it does take a certain fortitude or maybe pigheadedness to defy conventional wisdom when the business press is streaming an endless parade of doom and gloom news.

But Priceless Legacy and the capture of LifeStories is a company and a cause that cannot wait. It is a sad fact that our elders grow old and someday die. The timing of their passing is not regulated by Wall Street and the economy but by forces far beyond our terrestrial understanding.

Our desire and need to preserve the life stories and lessons of our loved ones cannot be just "put on hold" until the economy bounces back in eighteen months. There is an urgency to our mission that cannot be denied.

Furthermore, it is times like these that are so hard on families and individuals that people turn back to the important things in life. If fancy cars and exotic vacations are out of reach, maybe getting in touch with the wonder and love of family and friends becomes more appealing. We also learn to understand the emotional impact of growing up in the Great Depression or the other economic dislocations that our parents generation survived and we of the Baby Boom and Gen X largely escaped.

Nobody likes a down economy (OK, few like a down economy) but we have a concept that cannot be kept down by even a serious recession. Also, this is a time when more people will consider becoming a Legacy Consultant. Since attracting and deploying LCs is key to our strategy and mission, this can only be a good thing.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Stories Lost

I took my Boy Scout Troop on a camping trip to the LBJ National Grasslands near Decatur, Texas over the weekend. It was cold (by Texas standards) but beautiful. Naturally, as we sat around the campfire, the conversation turned to what was new with each of us. When it was my turn, I talked about the exciting start to the Priceless Legacy Company and how much fun we were having building the company and identifying Legacy Consultants.

I directed most of my comments to the other two adult leaders, but the boys (aged 11-15) could not help but join in. I was fascinated on how they were taken with my idea. A few started sharing fragments of stories about their own grandparents. They were clearly curious and proud of their family stories, yet none had seriously contemplated that they would not always have access to them. In fact, many stories ended with "or something like that" since this "one more generation removed" had only the most loose grasp on fact and detail. These scouts were excited that some grandparents (to them) would take the important step of creating LifeStories and virtually all expressed hope that their families would be similarly blessed.

It is amazing what the young can perceive and what they can teach us if we will listen. Many are far less self-absorbed and aware than sometimes gets credit.

Friday, November 14, 2008

In Color Video

This is a video that captures the emotional context for what we are trying to do at Priceless Legacy. I hope you enjoy it:


Legacy Consultant Interest

I have been amazed and, I suppose, flattered that so many people have expressed an interest in becoming a Legacy Consultant. Sure, in a down economy one would expect there to be interest any part-time opportunity for people to make good money performing fun and valuable work. But it is the passion and enthusiasm that potential LCs have shown for the Priceless Legacy mission that is so encouraging.

A lot of people ask me "how will I know if I am suited to be a Legacy Consultant?"

The answer is very easy. If you love people and have a special respect for the wisdom that can come from life experience, you have the most important attributes to become an LC.

It also helps to be reasonably well organized and basically computer literate (uploading files and accessing email . . .). 

It is really more about attitude, interest and motivation than it is formal credentials like degrees and resumes.

We have about fifteen LCs who have started so far . . . what a great and diverse bunch they are.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Starting Priceless Legacy

I have never been as excited about any business idea or company as I am about Priceless Legacy. The mission of helping people preserve their life stories and lessons is dear to my heart and a source of great personal satisfaction.

I am proud that generations not yet born will intimately know their ancestors because of the work we will do today. Likewise, it saddens me that we will not be able to get to everyone, no matter how large we grow. This is why I have invested so much urgency in the culture of this company. When I know that every minute five Americans pass away, it pains me to think that so few take the time to preserve their memories and life stories.

Don't those of us who possess something special of our own ancestors like a diary, letters or photographs hold those items as precious beyond description? Why then will not generations to come similarly value our stories and lessons and those of our living parents.

We have a lot of work to do at Priceless Legacy. But every day is a privilege and we attack in with vigor and enthusiasm.

Week 5

I can't believe it's only been 5 weeks since we began this great adventure - and accomplished so much already.

I work with the best team ever!