The Life Story Coach

Karin Jones believes sex and intimacy are a big part of our lives, and she challenges personal historians to gently explore this topic with their storytelling clients.

Links & Stuff

Karin's controversial article appeared in New York Times' "Modern Love" column. "What Sleeping About Married Men Taught Me About Infidelity"

Find Karin Jones' bimonthly column, "Savvy Love," at the Erotic Review Magazine, or on her Savvy Love blog at https://www.savvy-love.com/blog.

Follow Karin on Twitter: @mskarinjones

Curious about Esther Perel? Read about her fascinating story.

Gloria's website: https://www.real-to-reel.org/

Gloria's Equipment List

Gloria's website:https://www.real-to-reel.org/

Illustrated Heirloom Books, and What Goes into Creating Them

In this episode, we're going back to the first part of our conversation with Lisa Kagan.

As an artist and writer, Lisa is fascinated by the intersection of visual art and storytelling. She brings all her gifts to bear on the illustrated heirloom books her company produces, allowing the clients a chance to become intimately involved in the creation of the words and images of their life story book.

She also talks about:

• connecting to her community as an artist and creative, and how that has helped her organically grow her business
• contracting other personal history professionals for editing, book design, production, and more
• the elements of her initial sales conversations

If you missed the first part of our conversation, where Lisa talks about her workshops and retreats, you can find that here.

Links & Stuff Family Heirloom Arts Website Book Designer Emily Garcia Workshop Offerings Upcoming September Retreat: Self Portrait of the Inner Landscape, Exploring Personal Mythology Through Writing and Mask Making

Workshops serve clients and creatives, and help to build a personal history business

Family Heirloom Arts offers the usual range of services to its personal history clients: interviewing, writing, editing, photo management. But its founder and owner, Lisa Kagan, takes things a step further by inviting clients to create their own personalized artwork to illustrate their books.

That's just one of the things that makes Family Heirloom Arts unique. In this interview, we talk about:

• Lisa's roster of workshops and retreats, and how she leverages established organizations such as the library to market them

• the difference between outcome-based and process-based workshops and retreats

• how fans of her workshops sometimes turn into personal history clients
• a good place to start if you're just getting going with workshops

We also talked about Family Heirloom Art's upcoming weekend retreat, Self Portrait of the Inner Landscape: Exploring Personal Mythology Through Writing and Mask Making

Links & Stuff Family Heirloom Arts Website Workshop Offerings Upcoming September Retreat: Self Portrait of the Inner Landscape, Exploring Personal Mythology Through Writing and Mask Making

Marketing with a local newspaper column and more

Lisa Lombard O'Reilly of Your Stories Written joins us for a conversation about personal history. Listen as we discuss:

• Lisa's experience writing her dad's life story book
• using Kindle Direct Publishing for cheap proof copies and supplying friends with print-on-demand books
• Lisa's monthly column on personal history for Coastal View, a local print publication

Lisa approached the publisher of Coastal View after attending a workshop given by Annie Payne, a colleague out of Australia. Annie gave expert advice on mastering your community and becoming the go-to personal historian.

Lisa also talked about being featured on a blog post by a woman with an historical press. Clairitage Press specializes in local history, with titles written by Karen Dustman. Read the article here or here.

If you want more ideas about writing local history, check out Episode 47 with Patricia Hamilton.

Links & Stuff

Find Lisa Lombari O'Reilly at her website, Your Stories Written

Part 2 of our interview with Lettice Stuart, Portraits in Words

Join us for an insightful conversation about the business of personal history and the art of interviewing.

In this episode, Lettice discusses:

• how much she charges for life story projects, and how that number has grown through the years
• a clever pre-meeting tactic that gets Lettice into the right frame of mind for that always-difficult money conversation with clients [Correction: with this technique, it doesn't have to be diffult!]
• how, when, and why to bring in outside editing help
• working with a partner
• the extreme importance of listening, no matter how you do it best [Knitting optional]

Links & Stuff

You can find Lettice Stuart at Portraits in Words

Other episodes mentioned:

29: Rutger Bruining of Story Terrace

53: Part 1, Christine Norton Helps Life Story Writers Get Up and Running

54: Christine Norton, Part 2

Lettice Stuart was a journalist with stories in the New York Times when she shifted to writing life stories. While her writing credentials helped give her credibility, it was good old-fashioned conversations with people that grew her business.

In part one of the interview, we discuss:

• the importance of talking about your personal history work in any social situation, and why it's easy
• how and why to contact groups looking for speakers
• what to include when you give a public presentation

We also talk about why family members may not be capable of getting to the same stories that personal historians do. And what a magical moment it is when you see the light go on in the storyteller's eyes: the book is important, the telling of the stories even more so.

In our next episode, Part 2 with Lettice Stuart

Stay tuned for the second half of our conversation with Lettice, where Lettice shares how much she charges for her life story books, how she prepares for the money conversation with clients, working with outside editors, and more.

Links & Stuff

You can find Lettice Stuart at Portraits in Words

Want to hear more about the art of interviewing?

Check out Episode 3: How to conduct a great interview

For Steve Pender, personal history comes alive in Legacy Video

When Steve Pender started his legacy video company years ago, it wasn't to produce videos, but rather to teach DIYers how to make their own. Then technology changed. You still needed the know-how and the artistic flair to produce top-quality videos, but you no longer needed the big commercial studio. That's when Steve pivoted to do what he loved most: create compelling, beautiful legacy videos.

Give them options

I shape the production to fit the client's wants and needs."

Steve uses a winning strategy when he sits down with potential clients for the sales meeting. Instead of shooting out a price right away, he asks lots of questions, then goes back to work up a proposal, complete with costs. He believes in giving the client options: a price for what they said they wanted, and a fallback option that's less expensive. His packages start at $7,500 for a Q&A-style basic video, and increase to $20-25K and up for more deluxe packages. These premium videos include music, archival footage, and more.

Listen as Steve talks about:

• traveling to Italy to shoot as his client visits his ancestral home
• how Family Legacy Video was featured in the AARP Bulletin
• Steve's appearance on a local TV show [hint: This was a PR move any of us can use!]
• how using a freebie as a lead generator can build your email list
• how the Rotary helped launch his business

Links & Stuff

Family Legacy Video website

In six short years, Starts at 60 has grown to a platform with a million and a half visitors per month.

Now Starts at 60 is looking toward markets outside the US, and there's room for us life story professionals to leverage the systems they've already built.

The idea I like best is starting monthly coffee groups. Maybe it's because I saw how lonely my dad was after my mom died. Maybe it's because as a waitress in my teens, I saw how the people who lingered over coffee after dinner seemed to be the best conversationalists, the ones I liked to eavesdrop on as I cleared away their plates (and ashtrays; yes, this was a long time ago!). And what better way to get people interested in preserving their life story than getting them talking about it over coffee, in a safe place among new friends?

In this episode, we also discuss:

• the need to find a group of people with similar mindset, especially after a transition like retirement
• how Baby Boomers, like the rest of us, want a hybrid experience of online and off-line
• the importance of building and safeguarding trust among clients or in a community
• how storytellers of all ages are turning to online research when looking for services (Hint: Have your website and Facebook page up to snuff!)
• why Baby Boomers make great storytellers (let me know what you think about my new slogan: More wrinkles, better stories).
• and more.

Links & Things

Visit Starts at 60

Want to get your client a byline and possibly feedback? Contact Starts at 60 about blog submissions.

Establish a Starts at 60 coffee group in your area