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PROVO — Despite the best intentions, frequent journal writing can often fall by the wayside during the chaos of life. One Provo company, however, wants to make it a little easier to not only remember one’s own personal history but pass it along.
Lifey was founded by BYU alum Alex Balinski a little over a year ago and has since filmed over 40 “Lifeys,” or videos of customers’ personal life history broken into segments of stories. The service is completely free, and a customer will walk away with an edited video recording of them recounting the most impactful moments of their lives.
“Recently, I lost my grandma and I was reminded how sad it is to lose a loved one without having a video history of them sharing their most meaningful experiences and insights,” Balinski said.
And Balinski knows his family is not alone. He’s watched families lose loved ones then bemoan the fact that they never took the time to record the most meaningful experiences and insights of their lives before it was too late.
“If you could open up someone’s life experiences and someone could learn from them, there’s so much to be learned that can inspire, uplift and strengthen you and your family,” Balinski said. “It’s a tremendous way to serve your children or your grandchildren … and it’s a resource for their children and grandchildren to learn from.”
Lifey offers an outline for potential customers to write down some of their most memorable life stories from different eras in their life (childhood, education, career etc.) in preparation for the recording. They can then go to Lifey’s recording studio in Provo where they’ll be placed in a room with a camera.
“They break their life into topics and can tell stories within those topics. They can be however long or short they want them to be,” Balinski said. “I’ll hit record on the camera, and they just basically share one story at a time.”
According to Balinski, the shortest Lifey they’ve recorded was 40 minutes long while the longest was over six hours.
Once the person has finished, Balinski will take the footage and edit the video so it’s separated by topic and story. After it’s exported, the viewer can click on a menu so they can jump around based on which stories they want to watch. The video is then made shareable, so the customer can share it on social media or with their family.
If the Lifey video is not working here, view this Lifey and others here.
“I think, for me, the coolest thing has been seeing people’s reactions after they do their Lifey video,” said Jason Nicholls, an intern at Lifey. “At first, some people come in and they’re not really sure what they’re going to talk about or how it’s going to work. But after, it’s really cool to see them like, ‘Wow, that was a really cool experience. It’s so good to have this video.’”
Balinski, who also founded Prepare to Serve, an organization designed to help future missionaries prepare for their missions, has seen everyone from college-aged students to those in their 70s share their stories.
“When you get the highlights from 60 to 70 years of someone’s life, you get a lot of very interesting stories … about world conflicts or crazy, crazy things and super spiritual things,” Balinski said. “A lot of people who are younger sometimes feel bored listening to grandma or grandpa talk, but when you put it in a Lifey player, they can browse and skip to whatever they want to listen to.”
Balinski hopes the service will encourage others to stop procrastinating recording their life histories, as well as the histories of their family members. He also believes Lifeys may even be a powerful addition to funerals and give grieving family and friends the opportunity to listen to their loved one’s own words from some of the most impactful moments of their lives.
“Some of these stories are sacred and powerful and … you don’t see them in the mainstream media because they’re so personal,” Balinski said. “We’ve heard incredible and miraculous stories that … just really strengthen your desire to live a good life.”
All Lifey services are free, but the company accepts donations and recently created a Patreon account. Anyone interested in a Lifey can email AlexBalinski@gmail.com and visit the Lifey studio located at 363 N. University Avenue, Suite 113, Provo, UT.
Liesl is a reporter at KSL.com, section editor of KSL Tech and a student at Brigham Young University. You can email her at lnielsen@ksl.com and follow her on Twitter at @liesl_nielsen.
