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2023 - Professional oral history interviewing (live Zoom class)

5-week course in April/May 2023

Enrollment closes at midnight Pacific time

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Course Summary

This discussion-filled live course will prepare you to conduct professional life story interviews. In this small mentoring group, I (Rhonda Lauritzen) open our books to share the formula that took us years to fine-tune, so you can quickly create a thriving oral history business. Learn how you can have success in your own community and earn a livelihood doing this powerful work. This class has sold out every time I have offered it. Rachel J. Trotter also joins this group as a co-instructor to add her wealth of field experience.

We only teach this live course once a year, so you won't want to miss it!

Sessions will run Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:30 PM Mountain Daylight Time

Dates:
Thursday April 20, 2023
Thursday April 27, 2023
Thursday, May 4, 2023
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Thursday, May 25, 2023


Bonus included:

Printed package mailed

You will receive a goodie package of printed materials including two of our full-color question booklets that we use in professional interviews, storyboards, a how-to booklet, and examples of our marketing materials. 

Extra bonus included: How to make an ancestor video (a $99 course)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is a live 5 -week class.  The prepared instruction will run for 75 minutes with Q&A afterward. 

This is a live, cohort-style class with Q&A. There are additional prepared materials in the course player including step-by-step videos to watch on your own. 

There will be: 5-weeks of live instruction/group coaching; a closed FaceBook group so class members can network. This is the fourth time we have taught and refined this course, and it is the culmination of decades of experience. There are replays, transcripts, slides, and a great workbook to reinforce concepts and for you to review later. This class also comes with a bonus pre-recorded session on sensitive subjects in family storytelling, and a package of printed materials mailed to you. 

We hope you can join us live, but the sessions will be recorded. If you miss a class or want a refresh, you can go back and watch the replay. You may submit questions to be answered during the Q&A even if you can't be there. 

It is great if you have already done some interviewing or family history writing, but we assume you are just starting out in the business. We'll walk you through what it takes, even if you have never done interviews before. This course will help you decide if you want to start this rewarding line of work.

We have established a professional mentoring group which you may join following this class. As part of that membership, you will be able to access all the professional courses we teach this year. If you want to join the membership right away, this course is included for free. 

We plan to open our methods and model, including pricing, marketing strategies for our oral history product,, and plans for the future.

This 5-week course is taught at an introductory level to help you get started doing professional work. There will be no official certification offered, but our current members have requested a certification, so we may create that in the future for our members. 

This live course is only taught once a year

TESTIMONIALS

"Loved this class and I am so excited. I can see Oral History work as a way to bring together all my interests & everything that I love—family, other people & cultures, writing, photography - everything. Also, I love the energy you bring to your work— you bring so much light and enthusiasm!"
Lynette, Philippines

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“Rhonda, Thank you so much for the inspiration, education and encouragement you have so generously given through the weekly course. I feel very lucky to have found you.”
Andrew, Australia
I have thoroughly enjoyed this professional class!!! I've learned so much and all of the resources have been awesome! I appreciate the processes and the tools you've found to work best. Thank you again for offering this course. I’ve just loved it.  
Tera, United States
“It combines the why with the how of recording oral stories and the motivation to actually do it because it has been made simple, so why wouldn't you?!”
Jennifer, Unites States
“Thank you for your informative class and the wonderful follow-up emails! Each person in the class enriched my life. Thank you for doing this."
Mary, United States
“Thank you so much for this class, Rhonda. I'm now so excited for the future and being able to be a part of your network.  This is going to be terrific!"
Shirley, United States
“Detailed and helpful: Loved this course. It has so much information with pictures and links. It is detailed and helpful for me and my journey of helping to record the stories of family and friends. Thank you, Rhonda!"
Corinne, United States 

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“I was impressed with the sacred ground part of each story being so important to families to record and share. This was complete, taught with empathy, and many techniques were shared, with the author's pros and cons about using each one.”
Linda, United States
“The whole course is amazing, easy to follow, full of great advice, and the transcription tips are great. I had searched for someone who could teach me with passion and something more powerful. I did my research, read a lot of helpful information on Rhonda's website, and I watched the previews and that convinced me to do this course.” 
Bruce, Australia
“I just finished the professional Oral History Course. THANK YOU - it was so wonderful to have this resource, to inspire, confirm and receive tips to enhance the process. I have done about 20 interviews so far and it truly is sacred work, and something I have felt called to do.  My passion is the interviewing piece, and I have come to appreciate that each person has something special to share. Thank you so much for all you've done to help this work move forward."
Janean, Unites States
"This is a very good course with comprehensive technical advice, as well as food for the soul. Thank you so much!”
Karen, England
“Rhonda and Rachel make a great team and give balance to the presentation! I really appreciated the whole course."
Renee, United States

Course Curriculum

Rhonda Lauritzen

Rhonda Lauritzen is a professional biographer with multiple published books. She specializes in life stories, collecting oral history, and historical storytelling. She earned an MBA from the University of Utah and was selected as the Outstanding Graduate in her undergrad major. Before she founded Evalogue.Life in 2016, she served as a college marketing director, Vice President, and a corporate CEO. In 2007, her writing journey began with her parents’ family business saga, which became her first book. Since then, she has been hired to help tell the stories of families, cities, and nonprofits. She believes that when you tell your story, it changes the ending. This is why her passion is teaching, coaching, and presenting at conferences.

Rachel Trotter

Rachel J. Trotter is a senior writer/editor at Evalogue.Life – Tell Your Story. She tells people’s stories and shares hers to encourage others. She loves family storytelling. A graduate of Weber State University, she has had articles featured on LDSLiving.com, lds.org, FamilySearch.org and Meridian Magazine. She has been a speaker at RootsTech, Weber State University Family History Conference, Conference on Family History at BYU and the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. She helps people tell and write their life stories and has written six life stories with several more in production. She has also helped several others write their own stories. She and her husband Mat have six children and she recently became a grandma! She and her family live on the East Bench in Ogden, Utah.

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This live course is only taught once a year

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