IAM2830 – Professional Life Story Writer Helps Families Pass Down Generational Memories

Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

Amy Woods Butler 00:00
I think one of the most important things if you're a solopreneur or if you are building a company with multiple employees, find a mentor.

Gresham Harkless 00:37
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gretch from the I Am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Amy woods, butler of the Story Scribe. Amy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Amy Woods Butler 00:45
Hi Gresh. Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 00:46
No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Amy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing and Amy is a professional life story writer who helps individuals and families preserve their memories and stories in heirloom and and quality books with her memoir writing services, the Story Scribe. She works with a team of editors, writers and transcriptions, transcriptionists and book designers to produce custom books that help families pass down their memories from one generation to the next. Since 2018, she has hosted and produced the Life Story Coach, a podcast for aspiring and established professionals in the field of personal history. Amy, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Amy Woods Butler 01:18
I am.

Gresham Harkless 01:19
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Let's do it. So I first question I had, and I know this is probably your favorite question as well too, but I want to hear a little bit more about your story and what led you get started with your business.

Amy Woods Butler 01:28
Oh my gosh. Yeah, that should be my favorite question. But I spend my whole days asking other people about their stories and I am very rusty about telling my own.

Gresham Harkless 01:34
There you go.

Amy Woods Butler 01:35
But I do this is coming. So I just very briefly, I used to do other kinds of writings, mostly for newspapers. So a lot of book reviews and entertainment reviews and then some profiles and some interviews and. And then by happy coincidence I needed to do something more full time because that, you know, that was just to keep me from going insane when my kids were little. And then, you know, circumstances in my life changed. I needed to make a full time living and at the same time I heard about this industry called personal history or life story. In my case, it's life story writing. There are people who do what I do on video and audio only. I happen to Create books for people. So I heard about that right when I needed to support myself and my kids. And that's how it all started. And I got very lucky because I had just moved to Kansas City, where I live now, and a few days I joined a directory. I joined an association which has since closed, but they had a directory of people who do what I do, or what I was, at that point, just starting to do. And several days after I joined the directory. Gresh. This is. This is a true story. It was less than a week after I joined that directory that had my contact information on it. The Kansas City Star newspaper ran an article about this thing called personal history and how you can have a book written about your life for your family and friends. And that's how I got. Literally, that is how I got my first book job. It was very happy coincidence.

Gresham Harkless 02:52
Yeah, yeah. We were just talking about the. The bad parts of technology and timing. But it's great to hear that timing does work out in many cases.

Amy Woods Butler 03:00
Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 03:01
Well, perfect. Well, so I know I heard you say it a couple of times. I wanted to ask you a little bit more about personal history. Could you tell us exactly what that is and what that looks like for people that don't know?

Amy Woods Butler 03:08
Definitely, because nobody knows, right?

Gresham Harkless 03:10
I mean, I'm not the only one.

Amy Woods Butler 03:12
Oh, my gosh, nobody. And you know what? That's the biggest stumbling block for doing. Not stumbling block. It's the biggest challenge for doing this business. Because you go and you say to somebody, I'm a personal historian, you know, then they'll start talking about Napoleon or something like, that's my favorite piece of history. And I'm like, no know, different kind of history altogether. So what it is, is basically, you know, one of our life stages. As we get older, people feel the need to reminisce. And now, happily, we live in a time period that technology has made it possible, much easier for us to record those stories and make. Publish them in some way or another. So what I do is people hire me to sit down and talk with either themselves or sometimes it's the adult children that hire me. So I'm sitting down with somebody who is retired age or older. My oldest person was 99 that I did, but my youngest was also somebody in their 40s. But generally it's somebody who's at least retired age. And I sit down and do a series of interviews, which are really kind of like what you and I are doing right now, just a casual conversation. And then I take those recordings, I have them transcribed, and I use that material then to write a book for them in their voice. So I tell the storyteller the book is going to be the book you would have written had you been a writer. And then it is just them telling. Not just, but it is them telling the story of their life. And a lot of times people focus very heavily on their younger years, their growing up years, because as you can imagine, you know, if you grew up in the 20s or the 30s or the 40s, your life then looks very different from the life that your children, grandchildren and beyond are growing in that world, you know, the world that they're growing up in. So then we produce a book, beautifully illustrated with their photos. Although it's a long form narrative, so it's really the words that are carrying the story. But then we use photos and other memorabilia to design the book. And then they can order as many books as they want and they can give them to their, their family and their friends. And hopefully the books will then be around for multiple generations.

Gresham Harkless 05:03
Yeah, that's. That's pretty awesome. I remember, I think I was in about sixth grade or so, we had an assignment where we had to write our own autobiography. And I thought that was pretty cool to kind of ask my parents about certain things and go through that kind of process. But I think the beautiful thing is I, and I know you might feel the exact same way. I feel like we all have stories, and a lot of times those stories don't necessarily see the light of day because we don't have a way to communicate that. So that's why I think it's phenomenal what you do. Because a lot of times we have those things, we want to say those things we want to leave, but we don't necessarily have a way in which to do it.

Amy Woods Butler 05:29
Exactly. You're exactly right. And a lot of times I will sit down with somebody and they will, depending on the age group. So the kind of greatest generation, the people who are old enough to have fought in World War II, especially for those people, you know, they, they wanted to get on with their life. You know, the war came to an end, they wanted to get on with their life. And very often they'll not have told any of their stories. And then they'll tell me, you know, that I'm brought in later, you know, and they'll say, oh, I never said any of these stories. Or their family will say, we never heard any of these stor until it was a high schooler or our grade schooler, their grandchildren. That was right. That was an assignment. And then all of a sudden the family's hearing stories they've never heard about and they realize we need to capture these somehow. We need to, we need to record these because otherwise they're lost. And then the younger, you know, the baby boomers, so the people who are maybe not quite as old as the, the greatest generation, they are not as reticent about telling their stories. But the nice thing about them is they, they already know, wait, I want to save these stories. Where older folks might feel a little bit shy about say, well, you know, who am I to say that I have stories worth saving? Then the baby boomers, you know, they grew up in a time period where they, they're more self reflective often and they see the value already of saving their stories. So it's just great all around.

Gresham Harkless 06:40
Yeah, it's so interesting. And you probably see a lot of like the different ways that generations, you know, generally speaking, of course, kind of approach that, that aspect and it's probably super exciting to kind of see because now, you know, with the younger generations, with Instagram and everything, everybody's telling their stories. So it's like it's a less likely to be shy, I guess you could say.

Amy Woods Butler 06:56
Exactly right. Everybody has, we all have so much more of an opportunity to have the spotlight on us. But then, you know, I do. Not that we probably want to get into this, but I do worry about such truncated messages and you know, you're not going to be able to build stories so much out of tweets or Instagram photos and things. So yeah, it kind of worries me because I hope that people are still keeping journals and still writing letters because otherwise in a few generations, you know, that's not going to mean much to, to people. You're not going to have as complete of a story as what we could have now with the types of documents that people say. Although I have to say most of the people that I work with don't have very many documents saved. So it really is that that's sitting down and telling their story and having the time to reflect on the story and view things that, you know, maybe reminisce about things that they haven't thought of in years. And to get that out and have that recorded.

Gresham Harkless 07:47
Yeah, absolutely. As a, as an English major who loves reading and all things growing up, yes, I completely understand what you're saying because, you know, I definitely see the exact same thing. Everything's just so quick. You don't necessarily get that depth and that the descriptions of the painting of the visions that you have when you're reading books. So I definitely completely agree with you on that. So I know you touched on it a little bit. I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper just to see if you had anything additional with, you know, how clients work with you. I know you touched on a little bit. And then also what you think is kind of like your secret sauce or what sets you apart and makes you

Amy Woods Butler 08:16
think, okay, well, as far as how clients work with me, the, the most important thing. Well, there's, I guess, two really important things. One, they have to feel very, very at ease. And this other side of that is that the way that I can help them feel at ease is being a really good listener, being an active listener. So knowing when to ask questions and when to give them the moments of silence, because silence is not something that we're used to giving people in conversation. But very often when somebody's reminiscing, they fall silent. Not because they don't know what to say, but because they need to process some things or they need to call up some things to remember, or they need to figure out a way to express something that possibly they've never expressed before in words. And so it's a really, there has to be a lot of trust between me and the storytellers. And that's why, you know, I will do some interviews over Skype. But it's so much better in person, especially with the, with the age of the people that I'm working with. Technology can kind of get in the way a little bit. And you really have to have a good, solid personal connection. Because honestly, gresh, people at some point, I think probably every single book project that I've done, at some point somebody says to me, I've never told anybody this, and then they proceed to tell me something, and probably half the time they don't want it in the book. But you establish this kind of relationship built on trust, where they are telling you about their life. And so it's just a natural thing that, you know, maybe it's something that they've never revisited since, you know, years, decades before. Maybe it's something that was hard or a challenge for them. And so they, they just feel the need to talk about it, whether they're going to pass it on in their book or not.

Gresham Harkless 09:57
Right? Yeah. Especially when you have that kind of self reflective kind of period. You know, you. You want to get a lot of that information out, whether or not it actually ends up in the tangible book or not. But it's good to Just kind of probably just from, I guess, just a. A way of life, I guess, or a path of life just to kind of get that information.

Amy Woods Butler 10:12
Right. Yeah. Just. It feels good psychologically. And I am not a therapist. And. And for the most part, these are people talking about good things, bad things, and everything in between. Because I tell people, you don't want a Hallmark card of a book. You don't want just the good things because a. It's not very.

Gresham Harkless 10:28
Exactly.

Amy Woods Butler 10:28
And then if you're leaving this, if this is a gift to future generations, you know, to your kids and your grandkids and beyond, they're going to want to read about how you dealt with challenges in your life. But sometimes it can start to it. It very often does have a therapeutic effect for the person telling their stories. And. And I tell them usually, even if they say, I don't want this in the book, sometimes I'll write it up and. And I'll say, and. Because they're always the final editor. So I'll say, you know, we can strike this, but here's how it would look. Maybe this is something that you want to share or you want to share part of it, or we can write it with more grace and love. And, you know, it's us people protecting somebody else or thinking that if they tell a story that they are somehow overstepping the bounds of their own story. They're talking about something that's difficult for somebody else. So. So those are the things that you have to really bring a lot of. Of care and grace to.

Gresham Harkless 11:15
Yeah, that makes so much sense. And like you said, when you build up that trust in that opportunity for somebody to be able to tell you that, you know, you want to make sure that you are being careful about what they would want to, you know, talk about, but at the same time, it's just a good action, as you said, sometimes therapeutic. I would say it's therapeutic the. Right. So I imagine in the exact same way, when you're having somebody. Right. Your life, it all, it probably is therapeutic as well. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And I don't know if you've already touched on this, but this is what you feel kind of set you apart and makes you unique.

Amy Woods Butler 11:40
Okay. My secret sauce is that. This is embarrassing. I am.

Gresham Harkless 11:44
I am proud of me. You never told anybody this? No.

Amy Woods Butler 11:47
I'm going to tell you that my secret sauce is that I am not built to be a business person and certainly not a business owner. I have never dreamed of that. But my secret sauce is that I got just darn lucky. I did, honestly, because, you know, it was just this sort of perfect storm, in a good way, of. I. I'm not a type A person. I'm not. I'm probably not a type B person, you know, like, I'm. I don't know, Q or something. So I don't. I don't have probably what you typically need to start and grow a business. What I do have is. Have had this whole time for the nearly 10 years that I've been doing this has been locked. So the fact that, you know, this all sort of came to my awareness right when I needed it. And the fact that there's not very much competition. I mean, that's a horrible thing to admit. Like, I'm successful because I don't have competition, but I'm also successful because I'm very, very conscientious and I've grown my skills, but I'm not really a go getter. I, you know, I recognize the value in building my business because I've had to. But the fact is that there is. Life story writing is not brand new, but it's also not very old. And the fact that you didn't know what it was. That I didn't know what it was until 10 years ago when I started doing it. I mean, that just. That's very. That illustrates the. That very many people have not even heard of it. So in other words, it's growing. There are things like ancestry.com. there are things like the, you know, genetic DNA testing, TV shows, like, who do you think you are? I think it's called. There's. There's a lot of interest in genealogy, and there's a lot of interest in storytelling. And now people are starting to realize, wait, it's so much more interesting to hear the stories. So there is this growing need. The need outstrips the demand, outstrips the number of suppliers. Yeah, exactly. So there are not very many life story writers out there. Can that be my secret sauce?

Gresham Harkless 13:36
Yes. And I think you're definitely being modest because I think you still have to be able to put together a good product. So I think that at the end of the day, you know, it sounds like, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you're really good at what you do. You do, and you were just able to make the right decision at the right time. Maybe not necessarily purposely doing it, but a lot of times we wonder how if we follow our passions or Follow things that we're good at if things will work out. And it kind of sounds like it has in your case.

Amy Woods Butler 14:00
Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 14:01
Awesome. Awesome, awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Amy Woods Butler 14:10
I am very good at letting my mind wander. And it's kind of a daydreamy being sort of in a dozy state, but letting your brain, it's just refreshing to let your brain go where it wants to.

Gresham Harkless 14:20
I appreciate that. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And that is a word of wisdom or piece of advice or if you can hop into a time machine. What would you tell your younger business, though?

Amy Woods Butler 14:28
I think one of the most important things, if you're a solopreneur or if you are building a company with multiple employees, find a mentor.

Gresham Harkless 14:36
Absolutely. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Amy, what does being a CEO means to you?

Amy Woods Butler 14:44
Being a CEO means working your ass off. I mean, and I know that that probably runs contrary to a lot of the sort of pop stuff that's out there, the four hour, you know, not that I'm disparaging anybody, but I think there's a lot of. There's this misinterpretation. Yeah, miseducation. Exactly. And I think that's a disservice because really, if you are going to be running your, you know, you're going to be piloting your own ship. It's just a lot of work. It's a lot of work.

Gresham Harkless 15:09
Thank you so much. You just absolutely made my day. And I definitely appreciate you. Appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then, of course, how best they can get in touch with you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Amy Woods Butler 15:23
Yeah, just keep doing it. If you find something that you like to do, keep doing it. And don't be afraid to change course too, you know, because then you're just going to keep getting closer and closer to what you're meant to do. So as far as how they can get ahold of me, I have My main website is the Story Scribe so it's a T H e dash STORYSCRIBE with a b dot com. And then like you mentioned, I also do a podcast for people who are interested in working as in the field of personal history or life story. And that podcast is called thelifestorycoach.com but it's called the Life Story Coach. I have a website called thelifestorycoach.com and you know I appreciate any kind of people reach out to me very often, say hey, I'm thinking about doing this and you know I got a lot of great help at the beginning and I love passing it on.

Gresham Harkless 16:05
So yep, awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again. I appreciate you for passing it on, Amy. We will have the links and information in the show notes for both the website and the podcast that everybody can follow up with you and subscribe. But thank you so much again and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.