Capturing Essence for Care: Storytelling that Promotes Personhood in Healthcare

19. The Power of Preserving Identity Through Legacy Videos

• Lisa Joworski, Life Story Resource and Digital Storytelling Facilitator • Episode 19

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Episode Description

What if a thirty-minute video could transform how your loved one receives care? Legacy filmmaker Liam Martyn made the shift from commercial videography to founding Everlasting Studios after discovering decades-old family films and realizing how powerfully people come alive when seen in motion. From there, he built a filmmaking practice centred on creating thoughtfully produced interviews enriched with photos and home movies that bridge the gap between healthcare teams and the person behind the chart, building rapport, trust, and shared understanding in clinical settings.

You'll hear about his collaborative process—how preparation, clear questions, and promises of consent create safe spaces for candor. But you don't need professional equipment to start. Liam and I discuss how a smartphone and a few well-chosen prompts can preserve priceless history. Even filming a recipe session captures sensory details that become a family's living manual.

The message is clear: preserve now, not later. Stories secure identity through change, help families grieve with context, and give clinicians a fuller picture of the person they serve.

In This Episode:

  • How legacy videos serve as practical tools in healthcare settings
  • Creating a safe, collaborative space for storytelling
  • Simple ways to start preserving stories with just a smartphone
  • Why filming everyday moments like cooking captures irreplaceable details
  • The role of memory as medicine in caregiving relationships
  • Practical tips for organizing and sharing legacy videos

Guest: Liam Martyn is the founder of Everlasting Studios, a specialized multimedia service dedicated to preserving family history and legacies. Based in London, Ontario, Liam honed his skills in corporate video production (working with brands like Ryobi and Milwaukee Tool) before pivoting in 2022 to focus entirely on emotionally resonant storytelling with families. Everlasting Studios offers high-quality Legacy Videos, Memorial Tributes, and Digitizing Services. Liam is actively pursuing partnerships with funeral homes and retirement residences to offer these heartfelt multimedia services and ensure cherished memories are beautifully preserved for generations.

Website: www.everlastingstudios.ca

Other Storytelling Resources Mentioned:

Thank you for listening!

Do you have a question or a topic related to "capturing essence for care" that you would like discussed on the podcast? Text the show using the link above or send Lisa an email: awestruckaspirations@gmail.com

Interested in learning more?

Intro and outro music with thanks: Upbeat and Sweet No Strings by Musictown

Lisa brings over 25 years of experience working in healthcare settings with older adults. The perspectives shared on this podcast are her own and do not represent the views of any past or current employer. Patient/resident stories are shared only with explicit permission or as anonymized composites for educational purposes.

Lisa:

Welcome to Capturing Essence for Care, where we discuss the importance of incorporating personal life stories into healthcare and share ideas to help you on your journey. I'm your host, Lisa Joworski. Welcome everyone to Capturing Essence for Care. I'm Lisa, and today we're in for a treat. I have Liam Martyn with me today, and I'm really thrilled that he actually reached out to me. We met not too long ago and have already had a great conversation. We got to know each other a little. I got to learn about his work. He is the founder of Everlasting Studios, a specialized multimedia service dedicated to preserving family history and legacies. Based in London, Ontario, Liam honed his skills in corporate video production, working with brands like Ryobi and Milwaukee Tool before pivoting in 2022 to focus entirely on emotional resonant storytelling with families. Everlasting Studios offers high-quality legacy videos, memorial tributes, and digitizing services. Liam is actually right now actively pursuing partnerships with funeral homes and retirement residences to offer these heartfelt multimedia services and ensure cherished memories are beautifully preserved for generations. Liam, I am so happy that you and I could do this. And even though we just met, it feels like I don't know, I've met a kindred spirit who's doing very similar work and has similar passions. So it's thank you for being willing to have this conversation on the podcast.

Liam:

Yes, thank you, Lisa. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation and yeah, great, great intro.

Lisa:

Oh, good. Thanks for helping me with it. I think I think, yeah, the work that you've done, and I've looked at your website and I've actually done a little other hunting that we'll we'll talk about later on about some of the videos and personal things that you've done. I'm very first very curious to find out about what led to Everlasting Studios, and I'd love to just hear more about like how did this all come to be for you?

Liam:

Absolutely. It it started in the most authentic way possible, and something I'm I'm really happy to look back on. Um, what what began Everlasting Studios is I found these old films in my grandparents' um cottage, and they passed away about 13 years prior, and it was all these old films of my grandparents who I loved dearly growing up from 1941 all the way up to when I was a little kid in the early 2000s. So that's what began this journey of preserving memories for other people. I've been preserving memories for a long time, but the business really started at that point when I found these old films, and then it sparked this idea in me that I could do this for other people, I could preserve these precious memories for other people.

Lisa:

Wow. So how did you I love when people have that inspiration from family that they've, you know, they have those memories and those photos that they want to preserve somehow. How did that so what happened before Everlasting Studios that got you to this point? Because that's it's a lot of skill. And I only say that because I didn't really go into this work to create videos, it's only because I know that they're so important. So I don't actually, I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, but I think people have heard it before. I don't love editing and the video part of it, but I believe in it so much that you then learn to do it because you feel like there's a need for it. So, how did you go about learning all the skills? Tell us more about kind of your background and what led to that.

Liam:

The video side of it is something I never went into, never had a passion. I basically failed the only multimedia course that I took in high school. So that was something that just was so random and it sparked a passion in me. But it was back in 2016. I had a GoPro. I actually, it was my dad's GoPro, GoPro 3, and I took it on a Vancouver trip with my buddies. I also had a trip with my family at one point where I just started filming, and then I thought, hey, I should edit this. And so I found out how to edit, started editing with Final Cut Pro on Apple, and all of a sudden I found this incredible passion for video editing. I look at it as like a puzzle where you're cutting down clips from raw content and then figuring out how to order them to create this beautiful final video that captures your vision. And so I loved that process, and then it just grew from there where I didn't end up doing it as a full-time career for many years, um, but it grew into eventually during COVID when I had enough time to pursue something like YouTube. So I started doing YouTube videos on self-improvement and I tried developing different skills. So I learned how to juggle, I learned how to uh spin a basketball on my finger, and I took videos showing this process and then how to learning how to video edit at the same time. And then it was during that process, during 2020, around there, where I realized, hey, I really want to do something more cinematic. And that's where I ended up buying a camera for the first time, Sony A7 III, and it just grew from there into filmmaking and learning how to do lighting and the audio side of things, uh, VFX, sound effects, everything.

Lisa:

One thing just led to another. I love that. That is very cool. I love that you started with like doing YouTube and the GoPro and just trying different things out, just very authentic and raw, right? Like just in the moment, especially during the pandemic.

Liam:

Completely unexpected, yeah, absolutely, completely unexpected. And there's it's such, just like if anything, I'm sure that you understand this too, is such a learning curve. And there's always things to improve, even right now. I mean, that's why you have people that work on sets and you have so many different roles that everyone plays, where as a filmmaker, you do everything yourself from the filming to the editing, and you have to specialize, yeah, you not specialize, you have to generalize and get good at everything to make a good final product.

Lisa:

So, okay, so when you go out, tell me, I guess, about the different types of services as it relates to, you know, that this is about capturing essence for care. So you and I have talked briefly about how um what that means to me is, you know, I believe in everybody having a video, and it doesn't have to be a big elaborate one. It could just be a candid video that people have on their phones or that they have from, I don't know, family videos from years ago that they've just had from a holiday or something. That, but the point for me is that that's shared when it comes to say cognitive or emotional or physical changes. And for healthcare staff, it's helpful for us in the healthcare world to get to know a person on a deeper level in order for them to then build a little bit more of a relationship and trust and know what really matters to that person, get a sense of their voice and so on. So, yeah, I'm curious to know about the legacy services and what that looks like for you. So you were saying it's kind of a one-person show. So, do you go, for instance, to people's homes and then set up cameras and do an interview? Like, what does that look like when somebody asks for you to get involved?

Liam:

Yeah, exactly. That's the whole thing, is it's a whole video set, which can be a little intimidating for people, but it's it's a full service. I take all of my video equipment from the cameras. Two, I always like two cameras for the sake of keeping uh you know having a seamless video edit, and then all my lighting, all my audio equipment, two pieces or more for redundancy, and then potentially some other things as well. Um, but yeah, I take all of my equipment and I go to my clients, usually in southwestern Ontario. Back when I was in Vancouver, it was in Vancouver, and I sit down with them after doing a consultation call and then usually a pre-production meeting. I love that because then it just gives me an idea of who they are and what their vision is for this project. And then on filming day, we go at it and and we sit down with them and just let them talk about their life, and then I guide them. Um and and then the the real work comes, of course, afterwards with the editing. The editing is a huge chunk of it, and that's what takes the most amount of time. But the magic happens with the interview, of course. That's where it's really special, and we get to know these people. We develop usually a close bond and a very good understanding of who they are because they're telling us very vulnerable things, and it's quite a yeah, it's quite an honor to do that for people.

Lisa:

How long are the videos, like when they're all said and done, are they always different or do they choose that? Do you I'm just curious about the whole process and what it looks like in the end.

Liam:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's I I used to have a looser structure where it ended up being an hour to sometimes two hours of a finalized video, meaning the raw cut was maybe three, four, five hours long. So I've gotten to the point where I realized that that's way too long, and and typically people want something closer to 30 minutes. So that's what I'm doing nowadays is filming for maybe an hour or two and having something that's well prepared in advance so that filming day is is organized and it goes well, and it's you know, we're we're answering the right kind of questions and not having to do a lot of retakes, and then we end up having a video that's about 30 minutes long instead of what I used to do, which was, as I said, about an hour or two hours long.

Lisa:

Yeah. And it can be hard, like so the visit videos I do are two to five minutes long, so they're they're not long at all. And of course, you you know, like it's it's harder to have a video that's that short, you know, that that shares a huge message of a life story, you know. So even with 30 minutes, I think that would be hard because there's so much, and people think about yeah, I'm interested to hear about the kinds of questions that you ask. But when you're trying to fit somebody's life story, if that's what you're doing, into 30 minutes, how is it decided what goes in the video, what doesn't, what pictures to show? Like, how do you make all those decisions?

Liam:

Lee, so it's it's about really having a good process ahead of time and then during the editing phase, where the I'll answer first, how do we insert pictures? How do we figure out what pictures are we going to insert? Because that's the client's job, really. I mean, they have the pictures, I don't have them readily available. So my job is really I go through the first cut, the rough cut, and I bring it down to a nice concise length of everything that we might want to include. And then I look at things such as items or places or people that they talk to and refer, and then I bring that back to the client typically and say, hey, these are the things that you mentioned. I have the timestamps for when you mentioned them. And then do you have pictures that you want to include or films that you want digitized because we offer digitizing services as well, that we can then include in the video at those points. So I try to keep it really organized and structured. I'm I'm I love organization, and so that's a big part of it. And things can get very disorganized very quickly, of course, with the filming and then the editing. So it's nice to have that structured path.

Lisa:

I bet. I bet. So when you ask questions, are they chronological? Like do you start when they're children or do you kind of focus and leave it up to them on what they want to talk about when you're interviewing?

Liam:

Yeah, so definitely we it typically is chronological. And I do that because that's the story of your life for the most part, right? Is you start off when you're young and then you go throughout your life to when you end up having a partner, a career, education, things like that, and then eventually to retirement if it's if it's a senior that we're working with, uh, which the majority of the clients that that we uh work with are 60, 70 plus. So that's how we usually do it, is we have a structured list of questions, and then I've actually built a questionnaire where people can select the questions that they don't want to answer and the ones that they do want to answer, so we know that all ahead of time. And of course, typically we need more time than less to answer these questions. Like we we underestimate the amount of time that we need, and so I like to always have some some padding there because people typically talk for a very long time about their life, which which is good and natural, and and they usually people have a lot to talk about.

Lisa:

Absolutely, and I find that I don't know, I think I don't think we tend to get into deep conversations regularly with people. So I bet when you go, it kind of opens the door to just sit and have a conversation, and when you're asking questions of them, it gives them that chance to just share without interruption, right? Like I think often in conversations we chit-chat back and forth, and then somebody else might cut in and talk about something. So you never really have the floor to share for any really length of time in most situations. So, do you find that people for the most part like that? Like it open up to you easily, or is it uncomfortable and they're a little bit nervous at first? Like, what's it like? If I was if I was a client, like what's what's that look like? How do you build that relationship?

Liam:

Well, that's what it is, right? Is this job does not work if I don't have a comfortable relationship with the client. That's why I try to meet them at least two times prior to filming day, whether that's over the phone or in person, is to build that connection and bring down that barrier. This is a stranger coming into my house, asking me about incredibly personal, sensitive information.

Lisa:

Yeah.

Liam:

And how do I, yeah, how do you open up to somebody like that? So my job, I look at it as not just filming, not just editing and all this, but it's also building a relationship, building a connection with somebody in a very sincere way, um, where I can make them comfortable. And so oftentimes I say, like, you know, that's why we film these videos in their house, is that's a place that's comfortable for them. And then on top of that, I always preface it with, you know, no matter what you say here, this is between you and I. We can always edit the video and cut things out just like any other video. And so you say whatever you want to say, and then we'll figure out the rest later on. And and I'm here for you. There's no judgment on my end. That's a huge thing that I emphasize. There's no judgment, um, there's just compassion and understanding. And I'm think of me as a friend that you're telling your life story to, and that usually allows people to open up and then and then be very authentic with how they speak, and it turns out to be a really nice video.

Lisa:

Ah, that's beautiful. How do you first get involved? Is it the person who you're interviewing and doing the video with who reaches out to you, or is it somebody else who wants to hear that other that person's story or have that captured somehow?

Liam:

Yeah, another great question. That is both, definitely. So I've had children who said, Hey, my my parents are 70, 80 years old, and I want to get their legacy video done. And thankfully everyone's on board, and I haven't had that experience yet of parents who are like, I don't want to do this, but my kids are getting me into it. But I've had that experience, and then I've also had people who I've worked with who want to do it for their children, and they say, I'm doing this to preserve my story or messages for my children for future generations, and they they reach out to me personally themselves. I've had a bit of both, uh very unique situations that they're fascinating. Every single experience, every single legacy video is different. Yeah, but at the end of the day, thankfully, the people I speak to are passionate and interested in doing this.

Lisa:

Ah, that's awesome. Have there been any um times when somebody's like uh you just kind of answered it earlier by saying, I know I'm I'm all over the place, but when you said that you know it's up to them and there it's a judgment-free zone. So just to make sure and to reiterate, it sounds like say you asked me a question, maybe I shared information, and then later I was like, oh, I don't really want that included. What happens with that information or that like once it's recorded and you're there recording it? I think I would probably be a little bit nervous on you have that. You could do anything with that, right? So what happens if I don't want you to use that information?

Liam:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, we our business is built on trust and and um I would say, especially with our digitizing services, it's it's the security of your information and and the privacy of your information. So at the end of the day, I mean, if someone doesn't want something included, then I make a note of it and then I make sure to take that out later. And then we have a multi-draft system where we don't just create the video for them and then put it out there or send it to them. We create the first draft and then we send it to them. And then we say, hey, what do you think? And then they get back to us with the revisions from there where we can always edit things, whether it's them or the children who hired us on to do that. But in general, yeah, if someone ends up saying that they don't want something included, it doesn't matter that it's filmed, that can always be deleted and that can be removed at any point. And the last thing I'll say about that is we also have clients who ask us to sign an NDA. So we'll we will have people who, you know, I am someone that they don't know and they they don't necessarily trust right off the bat, but there are people that just say, hey, we trust you with this video, and there are some people who want that extra layer of protection, and so they have us signed NDAs, and I'm completely fine with either one.

Lisa:

Okay, and so for those who don't know what an NDA is, that's a non-disclosure agreement. Is that what it stands for?

Liam:

Exactly, non-disclosure agreement. And I'm I'm not an expert in that field, but I know that we we do have NDAs now that are created and templates for those people who want to make sure that legally we're not going to misrepresent them or s or share private information or share anything about the video at all. Um, and then it's just going to be kept between us, and then eventually, if they want us to delete everything that we have on our end, then we do that and they have everything kept for themselves. So it's not owned by us at that time.

Lisa:

Okay, so once you do the video and it's finished, then it's theirs, they own it, they can do what they want with that.

Liam:

Correct. I know that there's some filmmakers that keep everything themselves, and we like to look at it as this is their property, they're hiring us to film this at this point, and there's always options to save it on our end. I have a backup server where I can keep backups for people, and some people choose to do that, but it at the end of the day, if they want to keep it for themselves and and have us no longer keep any files, then we'll do that.

Lisa:

Okay. And okay, so I have I have a question. I know that when I've done digital stories and shared videos, so I've shared them in different ways. Like we had a Story Slam in Alberta. I've also shared them, you know, in healthcare where the care team gets together and watches a video, uh, which can help, you know, the care team get to know that person and provide better care because they know about them better. So I'm curious, have you are there opportunities? Have you been a part of when a person then has that completed video? Is do you share it like with their permission and with them included? Do you help them to share it with whoever they want to share it with? Say it's a family event or some kind of a screening in the end, or is it do you send it to them? Like what does that look like?

Liam:

Absolutely. I look at myself and and us as a company as we're not just here to create these videos for people, but we're also here to help out with how to preserve these memories and how to share them and how to view them. Uh all of those are important. And in the digital world, and in with my expertise in media production, uh, it's very easy for me to do. So I'm used to answering those questions a lot. And that goes from how to use a USB stick to then also we offer DVDs. So I have DVDs that we um offer people. I'll put that closer so you can see. And so we we offer these tools, but also the guidance afterwards on how do you share this video with family? How do I save it for future generations? What's a USB stick? How do I have a USB play off of a smart TV versus a projector versus my computer? All of those questions.

Lisa:

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's quite the experience, and it can really bond people together to actually sit in a room and watch that video too, you know. So it's yeah, I think it'd be pretty cool to have a whole, I think I might have mentioned this to you before, Liam. Like I think it'd be a cool event to have a time where you have different videos show and have family members, you know, and a bit of an audience come to listen. Um, conversations for us, maybe.

Liam:

No, I love that idea, and that's the thing, right? Is that's how I'm trying to position this as how about you preserve your life story or have preserve your loved one's life story, and then at the end have a celebration where you all sit down, you get the whole family together, and you watch it, and it's like a movie. You're watching a loved one's movie, and it's in a really cinematic and beautiful way. Yeah. Edited in a cinematic and beautiful way where it's 30 minutes, maybe it's closer to an hour, but it's a really good opportunity for the whole family to get together and experience that family history where it's not just them speaking, but perhaps they're looking at old photos that the family hasn't seen for many decades, or old films that have been digitized. There, there's that whole experience, and and it's yeah, it's really special.

Lisa:

Yeah, there's there's slideshows now, right? Like where if you're not watching TV and you have the TV on, you can just have your family photos and you know, like just go by on say Apple TV or whatever. So I think that, like where everybody gets together and kind of looks at the photos, and if there's a voiceover, it just helps everybody to connect and be on the same page and add their own memories to those conversations, right? When you have those visual cues and the the voices, I think we lose voices so quickly. Um yeah, so it's nice to be able to include the voice as well as the pictures for video.

Liam:

Absolutely, and that's something that I very much prioritize if people have videos where you're seeing a visual of something, it's not just a still picture, but you see people's body language and expressions and sort of like their essence. And on top of that, you have audio. I mean, that's just incredible. And we you I'd highly recommend people including those videos in the legacy video or just digitizing their videos to be able to look back on. Um, it's all yeah, it's all very meaningful.

Lisa:

Yeah, yeah. And you I love that you've mentioned even just their nonverbals, right? Like the the character and the personality that a person has. You don't get all of that from a picture. So the more elements that we can include helps us to really get to know a person better or feel like we do. Yeah.

Liam:

Yes, and that makes me think of all the eight millimeter films that I have digitized and experienced with those because 99% of those are silent films. So I've gotten to learn and see more of my great-grandparents through those old eight millimeter films. I did discuss for my grandparents back in the day, about you know, five years ago now. And it was incredible, and it's been very cool to see their expressions and their laughter and how they were with each other, but I I don't know what their voices sound like. I've never heard their voices, I've just seen them on the silent film.

Lisa:

Wow.

Liam:

So that's what that makes me think of. And yeah, it's very special. And I I love that. I would almost rather being able to see them in a video and not be able to hear them versus hearing them and not seeing them. But I know that some people would feel differently about that. It it depends.

Lisa:

Yeah, it's hard to say, isn't it? All the memories are really, I mean, yeah, through all of our senses, that's how we interpret the world. So they all matter, but anything is better than nothing.

Liam:

So absolutely. Absolutely.

Lisa:

So I'm curious if you have any tips. And I I do know that you've done your own little personal videos, and you kind of alluded to that earlier on. But for people who say they don't reach out for any services and they really don't, you know, at this point, they're just kind of thinking about it and finding out that it's maybe more important than they realized. What could people do from your experience and maybe the ideas that you've done yourself that would help to at least get started if they, you know, if they're starting from scratch and aren't ready to reach out for professional services? Do you have any advice?

Liam:

Absolutely. I mean, in general, I'm all for people looking at alternatives that are eve that that are not as expensive because legacy videos with what goes into them can get expensive. So this is what I did for my own grandparents. My uh maternal grandparents, who are still alive, thankfully, is back in 2020, I believe, is I just sat down with them and filmed them on a smartphone camera because our technology nowadays is so incredible. I mean, you can take a smartphone camera and it still looks good, and just put it on record mode and talk about old stories, talk about things that will then be preserved in the digital world for future generations. That's what I would recommend at the end of the day, is sitting down, talking about these stories and capturing them because we don't think about it while things are good and people are together, and and you know, usually the families that work with us are coming to us because someone in their life has passed away and they are using us for a memorial video, for example, and they want to remember somebody. And I have a lot of clients that say I regret not taking videos and doing something like an interview, video interview, and not necessarily legacy video, just sitting down and asking questions to their loved one about old stories and everything like that. And I'm glad that I had that foresight back when I was younger, 2020 now, so I was 23 years old at the time. And I'm very glad for that. And I've done that for a lot of different family members as well. And it doesn't have to be a high production, high high-end production. It can be something simple because, again, the smartphones and the technology we have right now are very powerful.

Lisa:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's awesome. I think I'm just reminded now do you have something about recipes or capturing recipe videos or something on your website? Can you elaborate on that?

Liam:

So, recipe, the I call it the family recipe legacy video. It's one of the multi, multiple different versions of legacy videos that we've offered to people. And I've I've only had a couple people hire me for those specific ones, but it's specifically the idea of preserving a family recipe that has been passed out for generations through video. So, what we do is we work with usually multiple generations who are coming together and cooking something up or baking something and putting together a family recipe and working together on all of the different steps where we list the ingredients, we list the steps, we show the process, we show the final result with the family eating the dish and laughing and having fun. And then and then the whole idea of it is not only is it an experience between generations at that time, but it's preserving that family recipe for the future, which is just like everything we do. It's all for the future. But at the same time, being able to enjoy it right now and looking back, looking at that video with your family. So that's what we do. And yeah, the family recipe one, it's great. I'm I'm wanting to do one soon for my own family because my my granny makes incredible food. And so I've been telling her for a while now that I want to finally get that on film, like I've been doing with other people as well.

Lisa:

Yeah, you should. That's awesome. I saw the one on your website and I thought, what a great idea, because our social gatherings and our families often gather around food, right? And those we have in my family, we have that example of having um a couple of recipes that you know all the family members want it, but even the writing on the recipe card, you know, is the family members. And then you see the smudges, like there's something I think anybody who cooks or bakes knows that the ones that have all the smudges, they're the best recipes because it shows that they're well used. So to to be able to capture that, so even even things like being able to take a picture of the recipe card and using your even your phone now, like you can make it so that it's sharp enough because the written you know, pen fades over time. But I'm realizing that you can sharpen that um and and capture that so that you can share it with family members after. So I think even adding not only the recipe card, but you brought it to a whole other level on having intergenerational um together, the family, be able to make this recipe and then have that recorded to share with generations is such a cool idea. I love it.

Liam:

Yeah, Lisa, it's fascinating because when I think about it too, it's it's just the the accuracy of the information that is being showed through video versus using something like a picture of a recipe book or great grandmother's writing of how to create this dish. And oftentimes information gets lost or misinterpreted, whereas a video is very clear. Hey, look at how many of the how how many spoonfuls of this goes into the dish and how long they cook it for. Oh, that's a different type of stove versus what I was thinking. Okay, and it It's all this information that is being passed down that's incredibly accurate because it's through video. So I find that that part of it is really special. And that's why, as I said, it's the one thing that I haven't done for my own family is a family recipe legacy video where I would get I want to get my granny together and find out how to finally make one of her dishes because I want to keep that for the future. I think that's something that that we uh would really love to have for the future.

Lisa:

I think that's so smart. And the other piece is if I was a granny, I think I would be honored that my family would want to capture that and share it, you know. So I think not only the life stories and the sitting down, the conversations are absolutely like they're irreplaceable. This is like a that's something I'm actually good at. And the fact that you want to record it, that that actually might take a little bit of pressure off of the conversational piece. And it's more just natural if somebody's doing something, say, if it's in the kitchen or their favorite hobby that they're teaching somebody, like if they're actually doing something that's natural to them, it might take the pressure off of a formal conversation or an interview. I anyway, I'm just brainstorming, I'm just thinking of that now.

Liam:

I think so. Yeah, no, you're completely right. That that is, and that's what the night that that's what's nice about this work is a lot of it is relaxed, and people don't have to think too hard because it's their life, it's their family history, it's what they're passionate about and it's their background. So it makes it very easy on my end in some ways, where I'm just sitting there and letting people talk or show me their family history, and I'm just there to preserve it, yeah, like a fly on the wall in some ways. And I really appreciate that part of it because it doesn't take a lot of thinking, yet we're able to create something so powerful for people and then future generations.

Lisa:

Well, you're doing incredible work, and I'm excited. I'm so happy that you're close by and that you're providing these services. So thank you.

Liam:

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Lisa:

So, Liam, I do have a question that sometimes I ask near the end of a conversation. I'll be very curious to know what your answer is. But if you were to imagine, say you were going into the hospital and you didn't realize that you were going, what would you want the staff to know about you? Say you weren't able to speak up for yourself. So what if you were to if you were to just capture your essence or capture what you'd really want them to know about you, what would that be, knowing that you were going to be away from home? And it's I use the hospital just because that's what everybody can kind of picture. Oh, it's kind of a colder environment with a bed. You know, there's not a lot in there. So what what would be important for others to know about you? What really matters to you?

Liam:

I mean, the the obvious ones would be family and friends, and I love to have people in uh and see me and be around people that I love. And aside from that, I would say that I really like connecting with people and having really good conversations with people. And I know that that's something that comes up in healthcare, is sometimes I'm sure for nurses and doctors, things get really busy, but being able to have a conversation with the people that they're they're helping out, and there's there's many incredible healthcare workers that that do that and take the time, um, I would be one of those people that would love to have those conversations and spending time with people talking about things, especially things that I love if I'm in that uh you know, in the hospital at that moment, talking about things that I love and stories and um having having a good connection with people, aside from not only my family and friends, but the people around me who are taking care of me. I I would say that that's one of the biggest things. And aside from that, I mean, my goodness, I would say video games. I I love video games. I'd want to have some video games there ready to play at any moment.

Lisa:

I love it, that's awesome. That's why you have a cool chair that I can see. Not everybody on the audio can, but I can see your cool chair. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, and thank you for that. It's it's interesting to be asked, and sometimes I reflect on that, like if it were me, and I you know, I don't have all the answers, but definitely like I've made a little video where I want people to know that I love black coffee. Like if you mention coffee or treats or snacks or food, that will help. I love music, absolutely, you know, sense of humor. Um, I don't want to just talk about my whatever illness I'm in there for, you know, try to make it a little light.

Liam:

Anyway, and that you bring up a good point is I document everything. And so I have lists upon lists. And when I say document, I mean externalizing things from my brain to some physical or digital source. And so I have lists upon lists of the things that I like, the places that I like, my thoughts, my ideas, my background, family history. Where to a lot of people it might be boring, but I mean that's something that I love talking to people about. So that's where I probably talk to the people in the hospital about those things and uh and talk the year off just like I do with my wife and family.

Lisa:

Oh, I love that. So do you so you've done you've recorded a lot of your own information, and I remember you saying that you do that because you want, I think you want to share that with your family someday, or right? Is that right?

Liam:

Correct me, or absolutely no, you're completely correct. I'm I would say I'm an incredible outlier in the sense of I am obsessed, obsessed with preserving my life in as many ways possible, the good and the bad. And I'm not just talking about the people that take photos and videos, which are incredible, but I have gone, I would say, almost the furthest extent to anyone that I know of preserving things from preserving my thoughts in a recorded list of ideas and thoughts and how I've changed over the years, what things I prefer, what things I don't prefer, little feelings that I have, such as weird pains and how I understand if I go into cold water, I have this weird cold sensation in my left ear that I get. Um I just write down every single thing about myself. Those are the, I would say, the less interesting. The more interesting ones are the ways that I preserve my budget and the business ideas that I've had. I have a business log actually that I've kept, a video log, where every two weeks to a month, I take a video, a 30-minute video, where I sit down and I talk about everything that I've done in my business over the past two weeks to a month. And so I've been doing that ever since the beginning of Everlasting Studios, and I can see myself as a 23-year-old talking about this new idea that I had called Everlasting Studios and Martin Media Productions, which was is no longer around, and then seeing that develop every two weeks to a month to where I am right now, and having the successes and the the you know drawbacks and everything to have to land where we are right now. So I I love that part of it. And then I also have been doing life logs, I call them life logs, for the past probably 10 years now. And what I mean by that is journaling. So I started in 2015 um journaling my life every single week, and I would write it down, I would type. I'm not I'm not a big writer, not a big typer, but I just found an incredible passion around preserving my life. So I would write down and journal every single week from 2015 to about 2018, and then around 2019, I started doing videos instead. So I call them video lifelogs, and I do them every single week. I haven't done them in a just a little bit of time, um, just trying to keep up with the business, to be honest. But in general, I've been doing it for every week, uh every every week for about um 10 years, including the written journals as well. And it's been about seven years of the video logs, where I sit down in front of a camera. I always start off with what have I done today, and then what has happened over the past week. And I go through all the main things that I want to talk about. Not every single point that would be boring, but all the all the things that I would like to preserve for the future, whether it's me looking at it in the future, or my children or grandchildren, or anyone else in my family.

Lisa:

Wow, that's incredible. That's gonna be awesome for your families to look back on someday, right? And even you, like being able to kind of reflect back, like you said, a few years ago on where your mind was and how it all evolved. That's that's awesome. It reminds me of have you um there's a book called Story Worthy, I think Matthew Dick wrote it, and he talks about it's not video logs, but very similar, where every day um writing down like things that happened, because for him, he's part of um the moth. So the moth is a huge like storytelling um platform. Anyway, I can add links to that. But the idea being that he can look back and then kind of connect some dots on like if he's looking for a story to talk about, like a public speech of some kind, he can look back on all of his notes and be able to think, oh, this would be something I could talk about that would that the audience would enjoy based on this topic or this theme. But it's it reminds me of what you do. You know, you could grab all of these little pieces, like even the part about your ear that who knows, generations from now, they might be going, I have that, right? Like it's something that could be genetic or something that's in the family or something that people relate to. Yeah. I just think it's all very, very cool. It's very smart.

Liam:

It is. And I know that there are perspectives out there that are completely valid, which are that's a lot of information to keep for the future. That's a little overwhelming, and there's gonna be a lot of people that don't care. I mean, if I have let's say I had hypothetically five kids, I mean, there there could easily be four out of five of them that end up saying, I'm interested in some of it, but not a lot. And then I might have a kid who is obsessed with all of it, like I am with my family history, and and ends up looking through everything, or a grandkid, or multiple grandkids. And I just I find that it's not such a logical thing. It's just I am obsessed with the idea of keeping these things for the future, for that day, or for that time where I do have someone around me, or I do I want to look back on my own life myself. So I've been doing that as much as I can for yeah, about about 10 years. And I love looking back on it, the lists that I have, the likes, the interests, the things that have happened in my life, and pictures, audio, video as well, and categorizing all of that, index our indexing our old family films, even um, all of it just adds up to an incredible amount of preserved information history.

Lisa:

Your own archives, right? You have your own library. Yeah, it's fantastic. And you know what? It doesn't to me, it doesn't matter, like like you're saying, if you had five children, it's better to have it than to not have it. And and that's just thinking about children. Sometimes you're right, children might not care until they're much older, and then it might not be that generation, it could be a few generations down the road, right?

Liam:

Absolutely. And that's my idea is I'm looking at it as you always want to live in the moment. I've realized that I've I've at moments in my life and in my career, I have gotten to a point where I focus too much on the future, and I've had to backtrack and say, okay, we like the moment is incredibly important. You have to focus on the moment, but at the same time, I love the idea of preparing for the future and also preserving things for the future. And I know that in some ways you can do it too much, or you can preserve things that might seem uninteresting, but some of those will be golden nuggets that it that in the future, or golden nuggets that that in the future become incredibly inspiring, or an incredible lesson for somebody, or incredible just uh piece of history that someone looks back on and really appreciates that changes perhaps your kids or grandkids' trajectory in life because of something that they saw that you did or or something that you said. I just find all of that very fascinating.

Lisa:

Yeah, I do too. Wow. Well, thank you. Thanks for sharing all of this. Your personal experiences and then what you're doing professionally is just remarkable work. So thank you so much.

Liam:

Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. This has been fantastic. And I yeah, I love sharing these things anytime.

Lisa:

Good. Is there anything else? I don't want to cut you off. Is there anything else you wanted to share before we end?

Liam:

Aside from that, the I would say just if people want to end up following me and my path, we have a newsletter where I'm trying to put more information out every single month through a newsletter on how to preserve your family history and different ideas for how to preserve your own videos yourself. And then also photo restoration services that we offer, raffles, prizes, things like that, where I'm trying to make it more accessible for people who don't necessarily want to pay for photo restoration, but want to see if they can win it through some kind of raffle or giveaway. So I'm trying to do little things like that to make preserving family history a little bit more fun, and people can sign up to our newsletter on our website, everlastingstudios.ca.

Lisa:

That's awesome. And I'll add it all in the show notes too. So thank you so much, Liam. That's fantastic. What a great idea.

Liam:

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, well, I appreciate your podcast as well. I mean, this is a great idea, and and I'm very happy that we connected because I think we have a lot in common and it'll be interesting to see where where we go, you know, in this journey.

Lisa:

Yeah. Yeah, me too. Well, thank you.

Liam:

Yeah, thank you so much, Lisa.

Lisa:

Thanks for listening today. If you enjoyed this episode, take a minute to look at the show notes for resources and links, and be sure to leave me a rating and review. And also you can follow the show so that you get notified of when the next one comes out. And lastly, if you can think of somebody in your life who you think would enjoy this podcast, I hope you share it with them as well so that they can listen in on the conversations and ponder how to capture their own essence. Take care, and I look forward to the next time.

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