It occurred to me that my grandchildren would never have the opportunity to have the conversations that I was having. And they were so inspiring. And they were it was such amazing conversations that I was having. And when I was learning that I just couldn't imagine a world where their voice wasn't in it to teach us.
Julie Berman - Host:Hey, everybody, I'm Julie, and welcome to Women with cool jobs. Each episode will feature women with unique trailblazing and innovative careers. We'll talk about how she got here, what life is like now, and actionable steps that you can take to go on a similar path, or one that's all your own. This podcast is about empowering you. It's about empowering you to dream big and to be inspired. You'll hear from incredible women in a wide variety of fields, and hopefully some that you've never heard of before. Women who build robots and roadways, firefighters, C suite professionals surrounded by men, social media mavens, entrepreneurs, and I'm so glad we get to go on this journey together. Hello, everybody, this is Julie Berman, and welcome to another episode of women with cool jobs. So today is such an exciting episode, because I got to speak with someone who is able to like envision what they want in the future and then bring it to life. And my goodness, that is such a special gift. And such an incredibly courageous thing to do in my mind. Because how many times in life, have you yourself thought of an idea, or had like, your mom, or like your spouse, or even your child, think of a really cool thing that you would love to see like round ice, or, you know, maybe like something like the Walkman or a portable CD player. But we think of these things all the time that we wish existed and we want them and we need them and they don't exist. And then you hear like 10 years later, someone invented that. And there's such a huge distance, right between thinking something and in thinking about, Oh my gosh, this would be cool. If this existed to actually then getting to the point where you've created it, you've developed it, it's a thing, people can interact with it or touch it or do it right. It's like such a different place to be. And this guest Heather Mayo Smith, she is the co founder, the President and the chief visionary officer of a company called Story file. That's exactly what she did, she went on this journey where in 2010, she was a person who was developing these interactive exhibits for Holocaust survivors. And she was having this conversation where she thought, oh my gosh, I am having an active conversation with someone who has survived the Holocaust. And yet my children will not be able to have the same type of interactive conversation, the same type of interactive exchange, where they can ask questions and feel like, you know, they can get the specific answers to what they want to know, in real time format. And she considered how can I create this? How can I bring this to life. And she did exactly that. She took from 2010 to recently, where she went through all these different things to create what is now story, file life, and story file. So story file life is actually where she has this capability for individuals like you and me to go in and either create our own files with our own story, write our own story file, or to have people like your parents, your grandparents, friends, like if you know someone who has a terminal illness or maybe they have dementia, they can go in and record Choose from over 2000 questions and record and create their own file, answering these questions to then share with you or other people who may be important to to listen to what it's been like to be them and their experiences and what they've lived through. And the things that they've learned the journey they've been on. And then they have this other side of the business. That is more work. Hang with big companies, corporations, organizations that they go through and they work in a very big way to help not only develop, what are the visions that they want to do with these stories that people are telling and the interactions they want to have? What are the overall objectives? What are the outcomes that they want? What are the questions that they want to ask this person? How do they want to capture them. So it's really this incredible tool that they have created to be able to combine video technology with artificial intelligence that supports this two way conversation in real time. So it's such a cool thing, if you want to check them out, go to www dot story file.com. And you can also get 20% off the story life pack with the code women cool jobs. So if you're interested, that might be something fun to be able to make your own story file. But this was such a cool conversation, because this is exactly the type of woman who I myself envisioned over two years ago, when I was developing this podcast who I wanted to have, because she is doing something revolutionary, that's going to change the way that not only we can interact with people who we love, or people who are important to us, but also has all these other capabilities, and all these other applications that we talked about for being used, you know, maybe in an educational setting, or in a HR setting, and so many others. So it's really, really fascinating. And Heather has a very cool job where she is literally helping to not only figure out the puzzle pieces of what needs to happen for her company and the technology that they need to build, and then finding the people and finding the tools and the resources to help it all come together. But then she's trying to figure out how to glue it together, to get to where she needs to go to get them to where they want to be now and in the future. So I hope that you come away from this conversation, seeing how not only her job is so incredible, but then also coming from a standpoint where you can apply this to your own life in a sense of seeing how, you know, when we think of something that is possible for the future, whether it's a company or something that you want to create, that we can apply the word yet to so many different things, it doesn't exist yet. You can also apply this to yourself in your own life. Like if you hear of a woman in a cool job, whether it's on my podcast, or it's through LinkedIn, or you hear about her on the news, or you read about her that you can say, well, I don't know that I have the skills, right, or the characteristics to be able to do this yet, or to be this yet. But that it is completely possible to figure out how to do it in the future, to be that person or to do this particular thing that you want to do. And Heather, and what she has created what she has done. And what she is doing is the epitome of that. And I was just so grateful to be able to have this conversation, especially as I'm heading to my two year pod Versary of when I you know, shared WomenwithCoolJobs with the world. So it's such a special thing. So if you can think of one woman who would love this conversation, who would resonate with what Heather's story is and what she's doing that would be so special if you would share it with one woman. Thank you as always for listening. Hello, Heather. I'm so excited to have you here. And welcome to Women with cool jobs.
Unknown:Oh, thank you. I'm excited. I love this. I love your title women. Thank you. I would love to do actually an interview.
Julie Berman - Host:You know, I It's been such a blessing to do it. Like I've gotten to talk to the most interesting people. So it's an I've always learning which is like such a fun part of it. So I appreciate that.
Unknown:You get them all to do story files of themselves.
Julie Berman - Host:It would be really interesting. Yeah, that's I hadn't even thought about that. But that would be such an interesting other way to share this work. And like what you know, like what everyone's accomplished and what they're doing. So yeah, maybe we'll have to chat about that. That's a really awesome idea. So I want to introduce you, you are the chief visionary officer, the co founder and the president of story file, which uses this incredible video technology, combined with artificial intelligence to support a two way conversation. So oftentimes, we have videos, and we see it's one way communication, right? The video is playing, and we're listening to it. And you've helped bring this really incredible technology to life that, that it allows for a conversation to happen between the person who is videoed and the actual person who's asking the questions in lifetime. And it mimics having a real conversation because you can, you can interact, you can ask questions that you have on the spur of the moment about that individuals experience.
Unknown:Great description.
Julie Berman - Host:Can you tell I was in communications before? Yeah. So it was, it's such an interesting thing that you did it. And I know, we got to chat, luckily, a little bit before this official recording, and what I found so incredible about what you've done. And what you're doing is that this is truly a visionary thing that you have brought to life. Because you started out, you said, Siri didn't exist back in 2010. And also, it just so happened that Skype had arrived on the scene, but it like wasn't super developed. And you have this really incredible thought, but yet, the tech wasn't up to where it needed to be to, and like to roll out your idea. And so you've kind of like gone along and put all the puzzle pieces together to create a story file. And to now enable not only businesses to use it, but also to allow just like the everyday person to be able to capture some of these special conversations, these special memories, and things that they can now share with future generations.
Unknown:Right, right. I mean, you said something earlier about so often people make videos for us, or video content for us, documentaries, movies, even news is curated for us. And we it has a point, right? Everybody that's curious video wants to make a particular point. It's a story they're telling. And it's their view of that story. Our our whole ethos was what if you were the one that was able to just through your curiosity, ask the questions that you were curious about, ask the follow up questions to those documentaries. They're the things they didn't talk about. And so for, and then you're not passively listening to their version of this story, you're actually in it, and figuring it out for yourself. And just asking questions and and letting your curiosity go wild.
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah. And it's such an incredibly powerful tool. Like, I love just doing the, you know, some of the research that I've done into story file and about you and kind of what you're all doing. And I think the most interesting thing is that I love the idea that the kids of tomorrow and the adults of tomorrow, can ask these questions of the people who may or may not still be able to share, and to be able to not only preserve it in this really special way, but to have it be that interactive component. Because I think that just coming from like a learning background, like what you said, being able to ask your own questions, at the time that you want to ask them is so important, and so incredible for the learning experience.
Unknown:It really is. It's how we learn as human beings. We've learned through asking questions, we engage deeper, we connect with the content and the material that we're learning about, in a deeper sense. So it just made sense. Why shouldn't you be able to ask your own questions and have your own conversation?
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah, and I want to ask you as part of your job because, you know, we have like this beautiful title of chief visionary officer, co founder and president, like, how do you actually describe your job? How would you explain that?
Unknown:I get the fun part. I get you know, there's so many things that we can do with this technology, and it's so new still, and by making it ubiquitous forever We family to do. There's also the business side, and all the applications that businesses and other individuals can do to help make their lives easier and save them time as well. So I get to play basically, and develop new, new prototypes of different, you know, use cases for the technology and things to show other companies, how they can use the technology, and then building our different products that we have is also an element of it.
Julie Berman - Host:Okay, wow. So from just my standpoint, if I'm understanding correctly, it's like a lot of the sort of higher level things for the business that you're working on, and like, also the future oriented things. Okay. Yeah. And I'm curious, like, going back in time, how did you get into this? And like, I know, you have a lot of experience with these interactive exhibits, and and particularly in relation to the Holocaust. But I'm curious, like, even going back before that, like, what was your you know, if you have education, what was that in? And like, how did you get into this path? Because it's, it's such an interesting thing that you're doing now. I'm curious, like, how it all evolved?
Unknown:That's a very interesting question. I grew up in retail, one of the things that I became really good at, some might say it was kind of natural, or came naturally to me was Merchandising, and so and setting up designing windows and cool displays, and then merchandising stores, and also purchasing was a big thing, a big part of my my life back then. I did graduating with a history degree. And I thought for a while that I might teach, actually. But I kind of fell into doing these immersive exhibitions and exhibits. And I loved it, I loved building environments that people would go into, and they would just feel like they were taken into that story. And they were just, they were living it. For whatever other reason, I began to specialize in the themes of these holidays, exhibit these immersive environments, sort of quickly became Holocaust related and genocide related. And I loved the idea of taking people into those stories and into those people's lives. And actually immersing them in what it would have felt like, for those individuals was really an amazing challenge to be able to do. During that, that time, I was having a lot of conversations with these Holocaust survivors. And I was watching them in the public and watching them at libraries and museums and anywhere they talked. And I was having these great conversations with them, even kind of during them, you know, during the downtime when you're not filming them. And it occurred to me that my grandchildren would never have the opportunity to have the conversations that I was having. And they were so inspiring. And they were it was such amazing conversations that I was having. And when I was learning that I just couldn't imagine a world where their voice wasn't in it to teach us. So it kind of led me on this path. And I don't, it was kind of a confluence of a different a few different things that happen. And I kind of put A and B together or, you know, a and z together. Okay, well, if you could do this, and you can do that, then why can't you do this? Then I had developed a relationship with a person that I met around the same time, who ended up being the executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation. And who I ended up actually marrying later on, but that was a story. Anyway, I approached him with this idea. And, of course, it was a natural. He had done his whole PhD was in testimony and how, you know, we haven't how asking questions and having these conversations was the way that we should really learn about these and that we hadn't asked all the questions yet. So he got it right away, of course. But then it just, it took a long time. You know, nothing like this had ever been done before, people didn't really understand the technology, either, especially the speech recognition, there wasn't like you said there wasn't Siri yet wasn't Alexa and things like that. But it was coming down the pipe. But the idea of talking to someone who was no longer around with us are no longer alive. It was, it was a hard thing for a lot of people, especially in such a conservative field, like Holocaust studies to really get behind. So we ended up having to do a proof of concept, we did the proof of concept. It showed promise. But you know, now, you know, this whole time, we didn't know if it would actually work the way I had envisioned it working, then that wasn't good enough. So then we had to do a pilot. Okay, go out, raise the money for the pilot do the pilot, it was maybe 10 months of post an incredibly manual process, just because it hadn't been done before. And a lot of different specialty labs involved special tech labs, and, you know, special effects and all kinds of different people. Finally, the pilot was done. And we took it around the world, because we needed to get people to ask questions. At that time, the project was called dimensions in testimony. And we had to take it around the world get people to ask questions, so that that formed the database that we that the conversation could work off of. And we were constantly iterating it as we went, as we're getting more data. And the one the one question I kept getting from people when they would see it was, this is amazing. Can I do this myself? You know, and could I do this with my family, or my my grandparents, my parents, the founder of our company. And after a couple years, we just, we realized, okay, there's something here, the process that we had been doing for dimensions and testimony for the Shoah Foundation was very, very expensive and very manual. And so we knew that if we wanted to do it for people and make it truly ubiquitous, it had to be affordable. People had to be able to use whatever camera they had, which meant their computers, or laptops or phones or tablets, it had to all be online. And it had to happen instantaneously. In real time. Yeah, that was a huge challenge. 5g hadn't come onto the scene yet. A lot of areas in the world are still still really bad Wi Fi. So the uploading downloading videos, that all had to be worked out. And we just said about I think it was about 2017 A note Yeah. 2017, late and 2017. We said, you know, I think that we could see the path to actually build it. We push the technology as far as we could by around 2019. Then we iterated and evolved it 2000 22,021 We're more still, you know, that part of my job as Chief Visionary Officer is saying, Okay, well, how is this going to work in 2025 28? You know, what kind of tech is going to be around? Or how far can we push natural language processing? How far can we push artificial intelligence? How far can you push machine learning? And what kind of a natural conversation does that create? And then you say, Okay, well, what kind of data do we need from people? In order to do that? The thing that we makes us special is, we are different. We're based on real people. I'm not scraping your texts, for example, or taking all of your emails that you've ever written in the last 10 years and deciding this is what I think you would say in answer to this question. And this is how I think you would look answering this question I'm, if there's one thing I've learned about artificial intelligence, the one thing that you about human beings, that is probably going to be the most difficult thing and I would even probably bet you will not be able to do it ever is 100% replicate nonverbal communication between humans. And so it was very, very important to us that a we use video because it was it would have been a whole A lot easier if you just use audio. But in order to really get to know someone, you have to be able to look into their eyes, you have to be able to see their body language, you have to be able to feel that person as they're talking to you. And so we stuck with a video, we stuck with the, the authentic, using a real person, this is what the person said, This is how they looked when they said it. Nothing is edited, nothing is manipulated, in any of the videos that you that you record of yourselves, nothing, nothing like that. So it does really give a person a sense of who you are, or were years from now, people will watch, you know, interact with my story file. And hopefully they'll get a really good sense of who I was.
Julie Berman - Host:I think that's so incredibly, I mean, it's interesting, but it's also just so powerful, I think, not only for the sake of historical purposes, you know, and sort of how you got started. But then also for the sake of family members, you know, or even like friends, it's, it's so fascinating, because I was I was listening to one of the story files that you have up on the site is this 106 year old woman, and viola Fletcher. And she she lived through the Tulsa race riots, which I had think I'd heard of, but like, I had no idea about it. So then, of course, I went and go look, I went to go look it up. Uh huh. Yeah, it's, it was incredible. So, but you know, it was interesting, because I was listening, and I was asking different questions, you know, and I went through some of the suggested questions. And she happened to say the word, and I would say, theater, when she said theater, and I listened to it, and then I replayed it. And I like, I literally started crying, because I realized, my grandma, who would have been 101, this year, who passed away almost a decade ago now and host super close to, that's how she said, theater. She said theater and I literally hadn't heard the pronunciation and so long, I had forgotten that. That was how she said it. And so I just immediately started crying. And I went to her house. And I was like, like, what is wrong, because I was doing research. She's like, what happened? You know, but it was, it was just so incredibly powerful. And then to be able to capture that, right? That was a perfect stranger, but to be able to capture that, for someone who like you admire or want to know, or like love and care about so, so powerful. So I wanted to share that first and foremost, because I just thought the voice is so incredible, you know, and and I think that's an a visual element, as well. And it's, it's why I also wanted to do podcasts was to be able to capture some of that stuff, the same to read it, it's like to Pat to capture people's unique voices. It's,
Unknown:it is totally different.
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah. And so I want to ask you kind of a little bit more about your job. And because you are someone who's really doing something that hasn't yet been done, and you're constantly evolving it. I think we've all known someone or had our own our own ideas of like, Oh, I think this should this should, you know, be in existence, like, you know, whatever, a circular ice cube or like, whatever the idea is, and then a decade later, someone invents it, and you're like, oh, I have that idea. But the thing is, is like you had the idea and and the difference between the thought and the action. I mean, there's this giant, giant expanse. And so I would love to hear from you like, how do you go about and how did you go about that? Like, what is your mindset? And how do you do that going forward? Because I think that's such a powerful thing, not only as a person but like as a as a woman, sort of, and hopefully where we're going in the world with being women and doing these cool jobs and doing things that maybe we haven't done in the past.
Unknown:Yeah, it definitely it was challenging. It's, I was talking to somebody else, and they asked me a similar question. And I have to honestly honestly say there was something internal that almost it just consumed me it. It wouldn't let me stop. I just had to do this. I had to make This happened, the more we got into it. And I think the bigger, you know, one of the biggest things was the people that I was working with, and trying to capture these Holocaust survivors voices for future generations. I mean, I knew that we could do presidents, I knew that we can do other people that have changed our world, you know, and leaders and people that have certain specific knowledge that, you know, a lot more people, it would be great if a lot more people had access to that. Right. But I was, I don't know, it was as if I was just literally born to make that happen. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't give up. It was nice to have, though. I mean, I was called insane. Crazy. People said to me, you want to talk to dead people. It was a weird concept, one institution called the seance project. And, you know, we were trying to do something that had only been done in science fiction. before. You know, that was, that was, that was a person's point of reference, which I would have thought would have helped. But it just it, it took a lot, a lot of doors, opening doors, closing doors, doors slammed on you, until you found people that really could understand it, and would back it, it was a very expensive project to do for the Shoah Foundation. And that whole field, they they have to raise money for, for all of this education to happen. So you don't want to take money away from something another program that is a value in order to try something that we didn't actually know if it would work. So until about, even about 2015, early 2015. We didn't fully know if it would work the way we intended. So that was five years later. Wow. And a few, a few million dollars already. Like, yeah, it was a journey that I don't think you know, how they say that, you know, when young people do things, and they say that they were just either too stupid or too naive to actually know what they were getting into. I wasn't young and I wasn't, wasn't exactly inexperienced. But I think that I didn't fully realize, and I can appreciate it now. But I didn't fully realize how difficult when I was asking everybody to do was because I just naturally saw it. And it was it was there. And of course this shouldn't happen. Why shouldn't this have? Why should we be able to do this? It would be amazing for people to be able to talk to JFK right now. And if he if he had been able to do this, or Martin Luther King, I mean, and and you know, and everyone says to me, Oh, well, we you know, we've already had all of our grades, and there's not going to be anybody left to interview, what are we going to do, we don't know that. We'd have no idea of what's going to come down the pike who's going to come down the pike, how they're going to change our lives in the world, you know, so there's plenty of people that that we can that should be captured like this so that other people can have these conversations and ask them what's on their mind, even if it's, even if you're in a classroom and you do a q&a. I don't know if you've ever noticed this. But if you've gone to a lecture, or been in a classroom, and this person gives, you know, gives them lecture, another talking for quite a while. Most people are quiet, they're very respectful. And then you open it to the q&a. And then the room in the energy in the room shifts, it changes. And everybody becomes engaged. All of a sudden, everybody wants to ask a question. If you've ever been involved in that, or even the next time you are in one of those situations, I want you to pay attention to how many questions don't get answered. I mean, they'd leave like 10 minutes, 15 minutes for q&a, usually, literally, if you would walk that and spent the first 45 minutes with a q&a and then 20 minutes on the lecture. That would be more balanced because people they there. They want to ask their own Question. They want to talk to people, they want to hear what they want to hear that person or experienced that person talking to them. And they've been, they've been heard and they've been. And they've had that communication. It's how we learn. It's in our human DNA. So I, I, just to answer your that was the long way of saying I was compelled.
Julie Berman - Host:I loved it, though. It was, that was a really great answer. And they think that is something too, that's really interesting, because it allows someone to apply what they've learned, alright, their own life, which is a huge tenant of actually andragogy, which is how adults learn. So it's really, really interesting. And yeah, I'm gonna think about this. So I, I want to ask to, you know, what is your if you can tell us maybe about a typical day in your life, or a typical week in your life? Or, if that doesn't exist, kind of some of the little things you too are like, Who do you meet with? And the reason I ask is, because my next question I want to talk about sort of like, what do you think the skills and maybe like, the characteristics are, for someone to be like in this type of position where you're, you're helping create the future, you know, you're helping create something for the future? So I, so what is like a typical day or week life and you're in your life? What do you do?
Unknown:First thing I'm gonna say is for the second question, I don't think I can answer that, I think you probably would have to ask somebody else, what kind of skills I have made this work. But for the first question, my day, oh, God, I wish you could see my board. side of me, it's moving, motivating people to move forward, all the time, constantly. It's getting everybody on the same page, getting everybody to think outside the box as much as they can, and really embrace that in themselves and go with, you know, run with it. It's figuring out problem solving problems, solving issues. You know, saying, Okay, what, what would it take if we wanted to do this? And clients come to us? And they said, Well, I've got this situation, what do we what can you suggest? So then it's all right. What are we trying to solve for? Really understanding what their needs are? And why? And then saying, Okay, well, we can use this technology in this particular way for you. It's a lot of fundraising, unfortunately. So bringing investors on a, you know, on the journey with you. And that and communicating that with them. It is
Julie Berman - Host:that is that to be able to grow for future purposes? Or is that to be able to like, reinvest in new technologies? I guess, how does that part work? Because I'm really not aware of anything having to do with like building a business and raising funds for that purpose.
Unknown:Yeah, so the part about building a business is you always need money in order to, to go to the next level, all right. And in order to get to the next level, and make the money that you expect to make at that level, you need to invest money to get there, to support it, and to grow. And then hope the hope is, is is that you get to what's called free cash flow. So once you get there, that means they the capital that you require, to keep evolving and moving, is actually finally being supplemented by the business that you're bringing in. So you don't need as much investment as you did in the beginning. Because in the beginning, you're not going to have as many customers but you have to build the product, right? To have as many clients but you need the team to think about how they would sell that and how they would you know what they're going to sell. You may have maybe five productions to do a month, but yet you need a team that can actually produce 10 of those productions because that's where you ultimately want to be. Okay, so you The old adage that it takes money to make money. That's kind of what they mean, you have to invest money. And sometimes it is a lot more money than you would even be making at, you know, for for years, for example, marketing plans, you know, and advertising, you need to spend probably three times the amount of revenue you actually want to create in the first three years. Wow. So you need to invest, you need to you need investors to support that growth. Not easy, you have to hit targets, you have to make sure that you you're forecasting, realistically, we have to be pretty conservative, I know that there are a lot of companies that aren't. And again, it's it's also in the story, you tell, and people are investing in people. So it's a lot of relationship building. It's a lot of communication. It's a lot of relationship building. And
Julie Berman - Host:so for your day, because you are doing all the things that I know, you mentioned, having a team have like 70 to 75 people who are working together to sort of build and grow and do what you're doing. So with that, I mean, is your day, are you kind of carving out time to like, not only I'm sure have many meetings, but then also to make sure that you're allowing time for like, envisioning what the future is, and like, having time to brainstorm because I feel like that would be a huge part of your job. Just given your title events. How do you do that that balance?
Unknown:That's the difficult part, isn't it? I mean, you. I think I probably brainstorm during my downtime. Yeah, when you own your own business, or 24/7. So it's like, we could think in the shower, we could think walking, we can think we get time to think it's not only that it's time to write as well. Organizing takes time and brainstorming with your teams. But then it's also about implementing that. So yeah, no, You never have enough time to. To just think, yeah, luxury, I hope to get
Julie Berman - Host:right one day. I totally get that. I so I was curious, as you're talking to, what is it, in your experience to be a woman sort of building this company? Especially, you know, you said a lot of people not only didn't get what you were wanting to build, but also really sounded like they, they just so much couldn't understand it that that they were had negativity towards it. So I'm curious, like, if, if you feel like because you're a woman that that's affected you or maybe it hasn't, or like, sort of how you feel now, being in this environment where you are leading a decent sized company, like doing incredible things. And you're in this chief executive role?
Unknown:So the interesting question, first, I have to say that I grew up in I said, already, I grew up in retail. And I, that retail business was basically run by my mom. And she took it over from her father. So I had an amazing role model, I guess, in that because there wasn't anything that I don't think. I mean, I grew up feeling as if there wasn't anything that she couldn't do. Right? I don't know, if she ever, I think retail was probably a lot more female oriented, in general. Anyway, I'm sure that the C suite was, you know, in major department stores was mostly men, but it was basic, basically run, women ran a lot of them day to day and retail. So I don't I would, I don't know if I'm going to get a lot of hate mail for this from a lot of feminists, but my grandmother said something to me interesting. And when I was kind of almost a teenager, I guess. She said, You know, you just have to use whatever you've got. And I'm a pretty good salesperson from that in that regard. Because of growing up in retail and I I'm not afraid to use whatever, I have to be able to do it at my fingertips. So whether I say to myself, I need to put a man in this position in order to ask, do the ask, I'm fine with that. If I need to get people around me, and certain types of people around me, in order to do get the job done, I'm fine with that. Whatever works, it's not. And it's not always about me, I have to, I have to think of all of my employees, I have to think of my family, I have to think of the business that I want to build and what we're trying to do. So I'm open to using or allowing anyone to come in to do that. So whether they're male or female, or whatever, whatever they are.
Julie Berman - Host:Well, I think to your point, like, I don't see why you would ever get hate mail for essentially, to me, like you're being really resourceful and smart. I, you know, and I think that that's probably why you've been able to do this and keep going after, like a decade of, of trying to put so many puzzle pieces together. Because I think the interesting thing that I was considering, you know, before the interview, and even as we're talking is that you sort of are putting together something that maybe you're like missing pieces, because they haven't been invented yet. You know, like, it's like,
Unknown:you have to know, you have to know what, yeah, you have to know what those pieces are, though. And then figure out how to create it's that you're talking about the glue with the glue where glue doesn't exist. So how do you? How do you fill that void? And with what? Yeah,
Julie Berman - Host:it's so cool. Like I, I think that what you've created, and I'd love to have you walk us through, if someone was going to use story file to create a memory of you know, either like a loved one, or they themselves want to make it. Could you walk us through what that experience is to actually start using it? Yeah, and just like a basic sense.
Unknown:Yeah, super simple. You go on the platform, you sign up, the first thing you're going to do is choose all the questions that you're that you're going to want either your yourself to answer or a loved one. You can also add your own questions to that. I mean, for example, I was asked to do a 75 Questions storyline for my mom. And within 20 minutes, I had 250 questions. Wow. But we have over 2000 We have just about 2000 questions already in the on the story file life platform. So that's the family, family platform. And or, you know, individual platform, personal platform, whatever. So you pick your pick out your questions based on the person that you're interviewing experience, their age, you know, what they might have been involved with, career work home, family, heritage, political or just experiences over their lifetime, that no highlights that they might have been involved in and asked to reflect on. And then you sit them down. Either they can do or you can do the interview, you know, you can answer all the questions yourself using your laptop or your phone. And you're literally just, you see the question on the screen, you hit record, you answer the question, and stop recording. You can review it if you want to, or just save and move on. And then you answer the next question. And the next question. And the next question. When you're done with all of that, and you've answered everything, even kind of before, once you've answered about 10 questions, you can go in and try and ask yourself those questions and just kind of interact with yourself to see how it's going, which is kind of fun. But then once you're finished in real time, you've got your story file, then you can upload it on your Facebook page, you can share it with your friends and family. You can keep it private, if you wanted. You can upload it on your LinkedIn page. If it's more maybe you did one more focused on your career and things like that. Or you just want people to get to know you. It's a great way for someone to get to know you anytime, anywhere. They want to do that without bothering you. Or without having you know having to have you Present? Yeah, just share it in your you share link and super, super easy.
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah, thank you for explaining that. And I think it was, it's interesting from the standpoint you can use it for yourself individually for like a parent or grandparent or a friend. And we were talking about some of the different scenarios that you guys were sort of brainstorming that people could use it. So anything from, you know, a friend or family member who maybe had a terminal illness or disease, which is, I mean, which is such an incredible thing to be able to do.
Unknown:husband's daughter, when my husband's father was diagnosed with dementia. She was the first she was the one that said, Can I use story file? We only had it in beta at the time, but she says, Can you give it to me and because I want to interview granddad, because, you know, my children will never be able to meet him or get to know him without it. So she sat him down for about four hours asked him about 300 questions. And what's remarkable about this is, it's a great experience for the interviewee and the interviewer. If you do it with someone, like if you have a family member do this. I have not had one family that has not learned something or heard something that they've never heard before. It's also a great way to engage with the people in your family and really get to know them and bond with them. It's a very special experience, actually, it's really, but you can I mean, you feel free to do it yourself, you set up a if you want to set up a light ring do that. If you don't, it's fine. If you want to worry about continuity and getting yourself in the, in the we have an oval that you're you're kind of trying to keep your head in just for continuity. But you know, you don't have to pay attention to a lot of that, as long as you've got it. That's as long as you video as long as you've captured the story of your life. That's the most important thing. I hear a lot of people say, Oh, well, I don't have a story. No, no, nobody's gonna be interested. And it's so not true. It's so not true. I wish I want to shake every single person that says this to me, because there's somebody that loves you, who's who tell them your story is truly important. I don't care what you've done in your life. They're in there. And I'm sure you've experienced this because you talk to a lot of people and you you get to know a lot of people every week. Is there one person that you've met that you haven't learned something from?
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah, I've learned from them all, at least one or two things, usually many, many more.
Unknown:There's not one person that I've ever met that I've talked to, I don't care if it's I've only asked them five questions that I haven't learned something. Something about. Yeah. Life or about anything. It's, it's fascinating. People are fascinating. But they they oftentimes Oh, no, I don't want to do I don't have a life. But it's so not true. Yeah.
Julie Berman - Host:It's an it's interesting. The more I do this, the more I've paid attention to how people tell stories and the questions that they ask and how people ask questions. And it's so interesting, because it's like you can tell stories are the way that we pass down information stories are what helped us imagine being somewhere else, you know, or living in another culture or going through a certain experience. It's how, you know, we've communicated for a gazillion years. And so, yeah, it's it's just a really fascinating thing to think about. And then also, the fact that you guys are not only constantly developing for where we're at today, but then also it sounds like really trying to figure out where are you as a company, and then as the technology sort of grows and develops, like, where's that all going to be? is a really interesting thing to think about. And a really powerful tool, like in so many contexts, whether it's organizations, maybe for HR purposes, or educational, or what have you. So I, I just am really excited to you know, follow along with, with you and with story file to see like, in five years, what are you all doing and like, where's it going to be used? It'll be so cool to see.
Unknown:Five years, everyone will probably be using a story file in most of their daily lives. Whether that's, you know, your corporate training or you are you do have a question for your HR per Since that will all be in, in a story file, you should, there is no reason today why we shouldn't be able to reach out to anyone, ask them a question and get an answer. I mean, I gone are the and it's a personal it's a person, like I want to, if I'm diagnosed with a with something, I want to ask somebody, I want to talk to somebody who's actually lived through that and, and ask them what they how they dealt with it. What, what am I not know, what do I not know, right now, or, you know, and I don't want to go through 20 pages on Google and go down all these rabbit holes. And pretty soon the whole day is completely gone. Or, you know, you're up until three in the morning. Just ask them buddy. Yeah, and don't you know, send an email and then wait for them to respond 24 hours later, or, you know, not even respond, and then you have to follow up with them, you should be able to just ask somebody a question, I don't want to look through a 500 page manual for the answer to something that I that I need, I just want to ask somebody. With within five years, everybody, every every school kid will be using it every fourth grade project where they have to do their genealogy, they will be interviewing family members through story file. They will be learning about presidents, they'll be learning about space, there'll be learning about the climate, through story files, you will ask customer service, FAQs will all be story files. And the issue is it's not that I want to take anything away from chatbots or avatars. It's different when you are when you're you think you're talking to a real person. But that real person is a real person, it's a different experience than if that that image is an avatar, it's a automated voice, the human being, you get a different feeling from it. So what we want to do is we want to bring back the human element to all of that. And, and really have you connect on a personal like, person to person. Just, you know, you just might not be there when you're connecting. It's fine. You know, I can get to know somebody that lives in, let's say I'm visiting, wherever I want to go. I don't know, Zimbabwe. I just want to talk to someone that lives there. You know, what should I do? What's your culture? Like? I just want to talk to a person, let's say they own a safari business or something like that, or basket weaving or I don't know, a tech company in Zimbabwe, and I want to go tour it, you know, I can ask them about living in Zimbabwe, and you know, their business. And, you know, where should I go for this? What should I do? What should I see while I'm there? And what is your life? Like? What is your culture? Like?
Julie Berman - Host:I love that.
Unknown:Learn a language? Do you know how many times I've heard people try and learn languages, but they never learn to speak them? Yeah, you could do a story file and you could actually just speak to someone. You're learning Spanish or you're learning French or German. But I can actually, I can interview you in German. And you're speaking to me in German in your native tongue. That's cool. Anytime, anywhere.
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah, I love that. That sounds fun to me. Yes, I miss hearing French so I would have a good time with that.
Unknown:That'd be great way to, you know, if you don't like I should be fluent in Spanish. I grew up in San Diego took years and years and years of it in school, you know, had dozens of friends and spokesmen, I used to speak a lot better. I moved to LA and all of a sudden I don't have that infrastructure like that, that Spanish speaking element around me as much. And I've forgotten so many of the words. So it'd be really cool to be able to just practice speaking someone. Yeah.
Julie Berman - Host:The the amount of applications that you can dream up are really incredible. So I want to ask you, if someone listening to this is like, Wow, I love the idea of being achieved Visionary Officer, I want to help either like develop their own idea or develop someone else's. I idea. And they have no clue how to get into this type of a role or how to find opportunities where people are dreaming up the future and going for it. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for like, how to try to be in this type of role? Or how do you grow this type of needed skill sets or characteristics? Are there associations of chief visionary officer? So I, I'm curious, all these things.
Unknown:I'm not convinced it's something you can learn. Okay. I think you could probably hone in hone your skills, okay. You definitely have to be a curious person, you definitely have to be observant, you definitely have to connect, be able to connect dots. I attribute all of that to playing rummy cube is a kid. I love it. But I know, for sure. I can't say it's a scientific thing. That's awesome. I think that most people with the title that I have are lucky enough to have been a CEO been in other roles in a company, probably mostly in product development, or innovation, and tech innovation. And you just kind of move into it if your company needs that element. Okay, I think that my, our situation is a little bit different, because I was the CEO for four years. And then I begged this other person to come in and be the CEO. So my situation was like, Okay, you're a founder, you've done pretty much everything. What do you want to do? And what I happened to be really particularly good at, is planning for the future, and envisioning, it's not so much being a visionary, it's envisioning what comes next? And or, or how to solve problems for people? And how to do that with our tech. You know, how do you have what do you have to do to develop the tech in order to solve this problem? Do you already have it? Okay, if you already have it, then how does it have to work to solve this problem? Or create demonstrations or prototypes of certain use cases that you can show to companies, so they can envision it? People need to be helped to envision things. So you need to build, build your case, whether it's visually whether it's just practically in a practical sense, you actually physically have to build it. So it's different, which I love. Every every idea every day, you get confronted with something different, like we're, we're solving right now for a challenge that hasn't ever been done before, unfortunately, has a super super as turned around. It's kind of oh, okay, well, can we do it? Can we not do it? I don't know. We'll see. Yeah,
Julie Berman - Host:amazing. Well, it sounds exciting. Like a definite adventure.
Unknown:Oh, that for sure. It's been an amazing adventure. For the last I've been in this for since 2012. Now, I mean, don't 2010 Or my saying 2010. So almost coming up on 13
Julie Berman - Host:years. It's incredible.
Unknown:It's changed a lot. So that's awesome.
Julie Berman - Host:Yeah, well, it just even thinking back to what we were talking about the beginning, like, thinking about not having Siri now is just such a funny, it's such a funny thing to think, you know, and just the things that progress in the world. And then, you know, it's like they happen in their novelty for like, what seems like three seconds. And then we get used to it. And it's like, you know, now my kids want to speak to Siri all the time, and they just know it exists. So it's just so it's fascinating to think about the potential of what can happen in the future and what you're creating and what we can all sort of create together.
Unknown:Kids will come home from schools and they'll say, Oh, how was museum Oh, I saw this great story file or Oh, right. I've talked to this great story about with so and so. You know, or they'll come back from school. And so what did you do in history today? And oh, we talked to so and so and it's just think of all the inspiration and all the x For teas, and all of the things that if we just allowed kids to be able to explore a little bit more, and spend time talking and asking questions, they would be inspired in a completely different way, and hopefully make the world a better place. Yes. Be nice.
Julie Berman - Host:I hope so. My fingers are crossed. So with that, I would love to ask you my last question that I asked to everybody. And it is this. So to end our conversation? Will you share a sentence that uses verbiage or jargon from your field? And then please translate it so it's understandable to us.
Unknown:hologram is the bane of my existence.
Julie Berman - Host:Okay, so tell us a little bit of outfit like what? What context everybody
Unknown:calls our technology? Oh, it's a hologram. Oh, you can talk to all over. And it probably, you know, it comes from obviously science fiction, but a true hologram does not exist. So we display some of our our technology is displayed holographically, which would mean that it does have depth, it looks like the person's kind of three dimensional, but you're really only seeing once the front view, but it just it, it may look like it's got a little bit more substance to it 3d effect without the 3d glasses and things. So you can take that we do film volumetrically for some in some cases. And what does that mean? That means that you do film a three film a person in 360, and with depth. So for example, if we wanted to put them in the metaverse, and we wanted you to be able to walk around them. That's, that's one aspect. Or VR, if you wanted to build a an environment in VR, and you wanted to be able to walk around the individual or walk with an individual that you're talking to, if you need to manipulate that body physically to do something and be more present in in three dimensions. You can do that with a volumetric capture. So but it's still not a hologram. And you know, I fought it for years and years and years. And the press just is relentless, and just never everything. Oh, see the hologram of this? See the hologram of that. And it's not even holographic. I mean, they'll still call it a hologram.
Julie Berman - Host:Something can be holographic, but it's not a hologram. So and what makes something a hologram? Or what are the qualifications.
Unknown:So a hologram is an actual, an actual something because it hasn't been developed yet. It hasn't been been done yet. It's something that is presented in front of you. That is that you can walk around that is three dimensional, and that has structure. So a hologram is an image of something so it's as if I was standing in front of you or sitting across from you. But it's an image form. So it the reason that it has doesn't exist yet is that there's no you have to project onto something. And unless you're projecting it, we need to find a way and they're working on it. They did do a true hologram of a two millimeter. I think it was two millimeters or maybe four millimeters butterfly on the top of someone's finger. Wow. It a true hologram. So that's as far as we really technically have gotten. Everything else is holographic technology holographic technologies based in what was called Pepper's Ghost, and Pepper's Ghost has been around for about 100 years. It's been used by Disney It was first used by Houdini on stage for a lot of their magic tricks. illusionist have used you know Pepper's Ghost and holographic technology for years and years and years. It just it's gone through this transformation technology technologically in the last 20 years that have made it a lot more ubiquitous, you know, to a lot easier to use and a lot are opaque. So that doesn't have that ghost like imagery anyway, where it got the goat named Pepper's Ghost. It's a neat illusion is okay. Interesting, but it's not a hologram. But I pretty much have given up. And I, I've succumb to whatever people want to call it. They'll say, Oh, it's a hologram of, for example, we just got this slew of press internationally over 500 articles written last week. Wow, it was the woman shows up at her. This is not verbatim, but woman shows up at her funeral as a hologram, and talks to the people that came that visited the funeral. It was, that was not true. It was not a hologram. So, you know, but people just the press loves that word. So
Julie Berman - Host:interesting. So it was it, it was a holographic projection.
Unknown:It actually wasn't even holographic. It was literally just a 2d on a monitor, you know, a big monitor. But it was just a TV screen. It was a big huge TV screen.
Julie Berman - Host:But it was a story file of this, of this individual
Unknown:came in it was her funeral. And the one of the the she was asked questions at her funeral. Her story file was at was they had a conversation with her her story at her funeral. And they asked her things like, you know, how do you want to be remembered? Or what would you like to say to everyone at your funeral and things like that, which they had obviously, they recorded this story by a while back in December, obviously, you know, not knowing that she would pass away. In fact, she was supposed to add to her story file and do another day. In July. She ended up and it happened to be that she passed away two weeks before that. Wow. Yeah, it needed this toil needed more content. But unfortunately, you know, you just never know. Yeah.
Julie Berman - Host:It's an incredible thought, though, to be able to ask at a funeral, how do you want to be remembered and to get the response from that person? Like, that is really mind blowing to me.
Unknown:We had one family that apparently they're known for being jokes like practical jokers. Okay. And so this probably did not come as a surprise at the funeral. But the family did a story of our, with their father. And they had an open casket. So I'm assuming that they were Catholic. And they put an iPad in the casket. And as people came up, and you know, said their goodbyes, they would hit the button to listen. And, you know, as people said, Hi, or Hello, so I'm, you know, I miss you. He would actually respond. Oh, my gosh, they knew that I they didn't show the story file. They just they would hear the audio from the story bile? I don't think they showed they showed the visual, they just had the iPad in the casket and they could listen and then standing there and they would they would like push the button so people could didn't know that they were talking to him. Oh my gosh, would answer
Julie Berman - Host:is really crazy. Oh my gosh. Wow. Just freaked me out. But I think I would have been freaked out too. But also a really intriguing use of what you guys have created. So I think life didn't create
Unknown:it for any of, you know, it's gonna be interesting to see what people actually do with it. Because we this was not the intent, but you can do things, you know, creative. But the intent was not actually even for your your children. It was for future generations, people that you You haven't even met yet. Ask. But it's it's a very interesting, people do interesting things.
Julie Berman - Host:Yes, for sure. And I think to that is what kind of end on this but that is I think sort of the beauty and the interesting thing about what you're creating is that like, from between 2010 When you had this, this thought about, about wanting to be able to have your kids engage with these people telling these important stories, and then to where you are now over a decade later. or, and then you know, even talking 510 years down the road, like sort of how it will have evolved or iterated is really an interesting thing. And then also to see where the technology is at that point, too. Well, it was such a pleasure having you on today, Heather. And just it was really interesting conversation. Like, I'm so glad that we got to have it. And it's really the sort of the epitome of why I wanted to have this podcast is to like, have these types of conversations with women like you who are doing really cool things. So thank you so much.
Unknown:Thank you. Thank you. It's an honor. Thanks.
Julie Berman - Host:Hey, everybody, thank you so much for listening to women with cool jobs. I'll be releasing a new episode every two weeks. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. And if you love the show, please give me a five star rating. Also, it would mean so much if you share this episode with someone you think would love it or would find it inspirational. And lastly, do you have ideas for future shows? Or do you know any Rockstar women with cool jobs? I would love to hear from you. You can email me at Julie at women with cool jobs.com Or you can find me on Instagram at women cool jobs, again that women will jobs. Thank you so much for listening and have an incredible day