5 Minutes with Jim Cosco
Host Jon Younger interviews Jim Cosco about why he started Legacy Video Stories.
Guest Appearance on 5 Minutes Podcast
Legacy Video Stories Founder Jim Cosco recently appeared on Assisted Living Locator’s podcast “5 Minutes with Jon Younger” to talk about why seniors should tell their stories through a legacy video.
The replay can be watched below.
Full segment transcript below:
Jon Younger:
Hey everybody. John Younger assisted Living locators here today, five Minutes with Jim Costco of Legacy Video Stories. Hey Jim, thanks for coming on.
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
Hey, Jon. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Jon Younger:
Absolutely. Absolutely. So very interesting what you're doing, and I love if you would share what you're doing with our audience.
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
So Jon, I believe that everybody has a story to tell. You don't have to be a super famous person to have something interesting to say. Everybody has a story to tell, and I'm trying to get seniors to tell their stories basically. So their story and their life is preserved for future generations. So I am sitting down and interviewing seniors about their childhood, about their life, about their outlook on life, basically for their kids and for their grandkids. So they get to know them a little bit better, and so when they're not around anymore, they'll have something to remember them by and they'll know what their family history was like. They'll know what their grandpa was like, their grandmother was like, and they'll know these stories that they may never have asked before.
Jon Younger:
That's great. That's great. So I so much enjoy meeting seniors and I met some very interesting people and amazing things that they've done. What you are doing I think is phenomenal because it's getting a museum record of what they've done for their families. Yeah,
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much. Yeah, so it's a venture. I just started at the beginning of the year basically. I started the venture because my father passed away last year. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm a video producer. I've been doing this for 30 years and I've been making videos for brands, for brands like Harvard and Putnam Investments and Keurig, and I've been telling these brand stories. But after my dad passed away, I realized I should have taken the opportunity to do this with my dad and I never did. I mean, I could have easily, it's what I do for a living. So I decided to do it with my mom right away, and I got her story on camera. I said, you know what? Other people would want this service. Other people would think that this is interesting and they'd want to do it too with their parents.
I started this legacy video stories and I put up a website called legacy video stories.com, and I do that now, and it's, I'll tell you, it's much more rewarding, fulfilling meeting seniors. They're amazing. They all have something amazing to say. Meeting seniors and talking to them than it is to make a promotional video for say, Putnam Investments. It's so much better. And so I'm very happy doing it and I'm trying to spread the word that everybody should do it and they should do it now while they can, and they shouldn't put it off. I put it off too late. I asked my dad to do it five years before he passed away. I was like, dad, let's sit down and do this. And he wanted to do it. He thought it was a great idea. Life gets in the way. You think you're going to do it next month, next year. I never got around to doing it. Once he passed away, it's when I really, really knew that I should have done it then and I should be doing it now.
Jon Younger:
Yeah, yeah. Do you do any kind of picture book companion or you just do the video?
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
So different products. The baseline product is a legacy interview, which is, I call it the interview of a lifetime because that's what it is. We sit down and we talk for 60 to 90 minutes about your life, and I basically bring two cameras and professional lighting and audio gear, and we talk on camera and we do that interview and it's a 60, 90 minute interview, and by the end of that it's about 30 to 40 questions about where they came from, what their childhood was like, how they met their spouse, how they want to be remembered, what their most valuable lessons they want to pass down. It covers the gambit, and so that's the base product. But yes, it goes all the way up to custom documentary style movies that include pictures and home movies and things like that as well.
Jon Younger:
So this is something that families can run the gamut of choices, picking off what they'd like to do.
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
Plenty of choices. And it's a family project too. So usually one of the children contacts me first and I give them a series of questions. Here's 40 boiler play kind of questions that I could ask everybody, but let's customize these questions for your dad or your mom or your grandparents, or whatever it may be. And so I encourage them to shop the questions around to their brothers and sisters and grandkids and nieces and nephews. Everybody gets a say and we come up with a list that's applicable to their loved one, and it's a great little process and creates great memories in the process of doing it. And of course, once the video is done, it creates a memory that they'll have forever.
Jon Younger:
That's fantastic. Jim, thank you so much for coming on. What is the best way for folks to get ahold of you?
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
The best way to get ahold of me is go to legacy video stories.com. You can contact me there, or you can contact me at Jim C at Legacy Video Stories and I'll get right back to you. I think let's make it happen, because regret it if you don't.
Jon Younger:
Absolutely. Good lesson learned. Appreciate your time, Jim. Ladies and gentlemen, my new friend, Jim Costco of Legacy Video Stories. Thanks for coming on, man.
Jim Cosco (Legacy Video Stories):
You got it. Thanks for having me. Bye-Bye.
