How to Create a Living Legacy Through Storytelling (Insights from Dr. Dan Rubin)

This webinar featured Remento co-founder Charlie Greene in conversation with author and senior empowerment advocate Dr. Daniel "Dr. Dan" Rubin on creating a living legacy through storytelling, preserving family stories, and finding purpose in sharing life's memories. Charlie also demonstrated how Remento transforms spoken stories into keepsake books and wrapped up the session with a live Q&A.

What is a Living Legacy?

A living legacy is more than the possessions or financial assets you leave behind. It's the stories, memories, values, traditions, and life lessons that define who you are and help future generations understand where they come from.

One of the most meaningful ways to create a living legacy is through storytelling. By recording your experiences in your own voice, you preserve the moments that shaped your life while giving children, grandchildren, and future generations something deeply personal to revisit for years to come.

In a recent Remento webinar, author and senior empowerment advocate Dr. Daniel "Dr. Dan Rubin joined Remento co-founder Charlie Greene to discuss why storytelling is one of the greatest gifts you can leave your family.

The Story Behind Remento

Charlie Greene opened the webinar by sharing the deeply personal story that inspired Remento.

After losing his father at a young age, Charlie later faced the possibility of losing his mother following her lung cancer diagnosis. Before she began chemotherapy, they sat down together to record the stories he hoped one day would introduce her to grandchildren she might never meet.

“We were, in effect, creating a time capsule designed as a way to introduce her to the family she may never have a chance to meet.”

What Charlie expected to capture were stories he'd heard throughout his life. Instead, he discovered stories that had never come up before, from moments in his mother's career to memories of falling in love with his father. 

That experience became the foundation for Remento: helping families preserve stories before they become memories they wish they'd asked about.

How Remento Makes Preserving Family Stories Easy

Charlie also demonstrated how Remento makes recording family stories simple, whether you're preserving your own memories or giving the experience as a meaningful gift.

Families can choose from hundreds of storytelling prompts, add their own questions, or upload meaningful photos to uncover the stories behind them.

Each week, a new prompt is delivered by email or text message, making it easy to build a collection of memories over time. There are no apps to download, passwords to remember, or technology to learn. Storytellers simply click or tap a link sent by email or text message to begin recording from any internet-connected phone, tablet, or computer.

Remento's Speech-to-Story™ technology transforms each recording into a beautifully written story while preserving the storyteller's unique voice. 

Stories can be edited, shared with family as they're completed, and collected alongside photos in a professionally printed hardcover keepsake book. Every chapter includes a QR code linking to the original recording, allowing future generations to both read the story and hear it in the storyteller's own voice.

Learn how Remento works

Creating a Living Legacy with Purpose

Charlie then welcomed Dr. Daniel "Dr. Dan" Rubin, author of Living with Purpose and founder of The Senior Empowerment Project.

Through his work, Dr. Dan encourages older adults to approach every stage of life with purpose, fulfillment, and optimism. Rather than thinking only about retirement or what they'll leave behind, he encourages people to think about the legacy they're actively creating today.

That message resonated personally after his son introduced him to Remento.

“It wasn't magic. But it was a miracle. Within a couple of weeks of getting the idea of helping seniors create a living legacy, my son gifted me Remento. It was exactly what I wanted. I'm up to about a hundred videos now, and there's more to come. It's become an integral part of my purpose.”

For Dr. Dan, recording his memories became more than preserving stories for future generations. The process itself inspired forgotten memories, encouraged reflection, and reinforced his belief that sharing life's experiences can be meaningful for both the storyteller and the family who receives them.

As he reminded attendees throughout the conversation, "the best is yet to come."

A Living Legacy Is More Than an Inheritance

One of the most memorable parts of the discussion centered on the difference between leaving behind possessions and leaving behind yourself.

Financial planning, wills, and estate documents help prepare families for the future, but they can't preserve the stories, values, humor, and life experiences that make someone who they are.

“Leaving not just a legacy of property and money, but leaving a living legacy... the memory of who you were, what you did, and how you came to be. This is telling me that I matter. My children are saying, 'You matter, Dad. We want to know more about you.'”

For Dr. Dan, creating a living legacy became more than documenting his past. It became a reminder that his life, experiences, and perspective still mattered. He also reflected on how little he knew about his own grandparents' lives and realized he wanted something different for future generations of his family. 

Charlie connected this message back to Remento's mission of helping families preserve stories while loved ones are still here to tell them.

How Remento Books Preserve a Living Legacy

Throughout the webinar, Charlie emphasized that preserving stories is about more than writing memories down. 

While photographs and written stories are meaningful on their own, hearing a loved one's voice adds another dimension that words alone cannot capture. The tone of someone's laughter, the pauses between memories, and the emotion in their storytelling become part of the experience.

That’s why every Remento keepsake book combines beautifully written stories with QR codes that link directly to the original audio and video recordings, allowing future generations to hear a loved one's voice, see their expressions, and experience the emotion behind every memory.

For many families, the result becomes more than a memoir or photo album. It becomes a living record of the people, values, traditions, and experiences that shaped their family history, one that can be revisited and shared for years to come.

See inside a Remento book

A Meaningful Gift for Future Generations

The webinar concluded with a live Q&A where attendees asked questions about recording stories, preserving family memories, and creating meaningful keepsake books. 

One of the biggest takeaways from the conversation was that creating a living legacy doesn't begin with writing an autobiography. It begins by sharing one story.

As Dr. Dan reflected on recording more than one hundred stories with Remento, he explained that the prompts never left him wondering where to begin. Instead, each question sparked another memory, another story, and another opportunity to reflect on the life he'd lived.

“Remento gives you lots of prompts... You don't start from scratch. They give you ideas. As I started using them, because they're great questions, it revitalized me. It started giving me ideas.”

Whether preserving childhood memories, family traditions, life lessons, or the story behind a favorite photograph, each recording becomes a gift that future generations can revisit again and again.

Start your Remento journey today

Dr. Daniel "Dr. Dan" Rubin's book, Living with Purpose, encourages readers to embrace every stage of life with purpose, fulfillment, and optimism while creating a living legacy that lasts for generations. Explore the book and discover how storytelling, reflection, and sharing your life's experiences can help preserve your memories and strengthen family connections.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you create a living legacy?

Creating a living legacy starts with recording and sharing your experiences. Family stories, traditions, photographs, personal reflections, and your own voice all help preserve your history for children and grandchildren.

Why are family stories important?

Family stories help future generations understand their history, strengthen family connections, preserve traditions, and pass on values that might otherwise be forgotten.

What stories should I preserve?

Some of the most meaningful stories include childhood memories, family traditions, love stories, career experiences, life lessons, favorite photographs, recipes, and the moments that shaped your family.

Why is preserving someone's voice so meaningful?

A voice captures personality, emotion, humor, and expression in a way that photographs and written memories cannot. Hearing a loved one tell their own story creates a deeper connection for future generations.