Hersh

Shoot me an email at shershey@xistance.com and let's set up a time to talk on the phone. For the first three which are all super interesting (someday I'll take my kid to comic con but it's not Xistance yet), are you talking about interviewing those specific people? I mean it's yes to all.

Dream big going down this road of history/story telling and where do you end up? What division of Xistance are we creating? Is it just podcasts or is it something more and how are we putting the content out?

Thinking here: Xistance has a podcast that has Xistance users coming on to tell their stories. We also have a history based story telling one along when you are proposing. Or are the basically the same thing?

Oh, when you shoot me the email, please copy and paste all four ideas and we can also discuss the other business ideas.

In a week or so you are going to officially become an early user of Xistance and when we talk I'll give you the rundown on how this came about and my ever expanding grand vision. I love this kind of stuff.

All good questions. We do pay for this content. Without looking specifically, it's been between $1,200-$1,500 for a podcast. We don't specifically assign pieces as we want to allow some creativity and hear from the interviewers what they think. This allows for some flexibility on how subjects are identified/cultivated so long as we are focusing on non-fiction story telling. I want to say that the first couple of podcasts have been about 30 minutes and I think that works, but again there is flexibility though we aren't going to pay $1,500 for 5 minutes. We do have an intro but once we get there I turn it over to my marketing manager. Of course we have contracts with people creating content so it's not just a wink and a nod and we want to use this as a way to get the Xistance name out there.

BTW, I'm Sam Hershey.

Let me know if you have thoughts on what you would do if we did a couple of podcasts/videocasts/etc.

Well, one aspect of Xistance that I want to pursue (btw, it's pronounced just like existence. Someone recently got it wrong though most all get it) is the media story telling angle. We are starting with our podcast and I have two different guys producing two different angles. One is doing some different themes related to collecting family history information and telling one's own story. The other guy is doing the traditional story telling angle interviewing people and getting their stories or their family history story. 

I can envision not having one host of this Xistance storytelling podcast. I can envision storytelling content that may be broader history than just of an individual. I wouldn't be opposed to video podcasts and I hope with success that this leads to documentary storytelling. No matter what I want to stick to non-fiction work for now. 

I'm just kind of brainstorming so if there is something that interests you along those lines we can try flesh something out.

Thank you. BTW, do you do any podcast production or have you been interviewed for a podcast before? I mean I know you did the stories and radio work for awhile but I saw you mention in a thread that you don't do that at the moment.

Wow, that is an amazing story and exactly what Xistance is about: to share and ensure that story/memory is available for family members and for generations come. One item I just found out (and I'm 39 now) is that my mom's parents were married and my mom was born a few months later. If my grandfather had been alive longer and they celebrated anniversaries I would have realized that before now but it's just something that never occurred to me.

About partnering with funeral homes, this is definitely a business to business opportunity that we are exploring. The current funeral sites are terrible and no one really pays attention to them so any condolences left there will only get lost in the future. That shouldn't be the case.

Thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it.  

Per your book, I do own it and I started it. I haven't finished it but this is a product of me not having a chance to enjoy reading for the last couple of years. I'm currently a full time stay at home dad with a 23 month old, I have 13 weeks left of my 2 years MBA program and I am launching this business. I haven't read a single book for joy since 2014. It's one thing I'm looking forward to getting back to in December when hopefully my brain is less like oatmeal. (movie reference)

Sorry, just back from Hockey tonight. We are building a more intensive autobiographical site that takes some features that are spread out a bit on the internet and tie them all together. A place to really organize your life and have stronger connections with family and close friends. Obviously ease of use is super important but we also heavily focused on privacy. At the same time we are not doing newsfeeds, recommending friends, etc.

I can tell when I've written it too many times and it feels semi soulless at 1:40 in the morning so let me give you an example. My mom and I are going to build a page for my grandfather who died in 1982. (One of the things I've always missed out on in life is not having a grandfather around as the other died before I was born) So yesterday I find out from my mom that she has all these pictures of him from when he was a kid all the way through the last time my mom saw him when she was 36. I am pretty sure I've never seen these pictures so to have this ability to put together his life using a timeline, a map feature, and a couple other organizational tools, I'll be able to have a really good biography of him to show my son and future generations.

A couple things down the road we will be implementing is helping add context to people's lives. For example we will build a Sept. 11, 2001 timeline node and if someone wants to accept it they can add their story of where they were, what they were feeling, etc. They will be able to do if via typing, voice recording or video. Also, we will implement a feature that will alert you if you are traveling and you go someplace that a past relative as been to. If I'm driving through Wisconsin, it may ding me that mom grew up in parts up there and show me whatever information she has put there.

Anyway, I could go on and on but I gotta crash. Oh, we are putting together a storytelling podcast as well. There are plenty of them but we want Xistance members to be able to participate.

I'm actually going to ask the mods here if they will let me post about it once it gets closer to Oct. 25th and we begin our slow rollout. For now it's just early users looking for bugs.

I'm like Trump, I want free media.

Really just more along the lines of writers that check out startups and write reviews or write about what we are doing. Doesn't have to be high profile.

This is me though: www.xistance.com