The Patti Brennan Show
Roy Moëd, co-founder of LifeBook Memoirs, has been spending time stateside. Between catching up with authors, chatting with interviewers and deepening ties across the US, Roy also made a stop on
The Patti Brennan Show – a podcast known for thoughtful conversations around legacy, life and what really matters. For Roy, it wasn’t just another media appearance; it was a chance to reflect on a deeply personal journey that has grown into a global mission: to help families preserve stories before they’re
lost to time.
Patti Brennan is a Certified Financial Planner™ and the president and CEO of Key Financial, Inc. – a wealth-management firm based in Pennsylvania. With more than three decades’ experience and accolades from Forbes and Barron’s, Patti has a talent for simplifying the complex.
The Patti Brennan Show reflects that: it is a biweekly podcast that unpacks everything from investments to legacy planning, often through warm and insightful conversations with guests like Roy.
Roy’s conversation with Patti was rich with insight, touching on everything from his own father’s declining health to the forgotten power of sitting down with someone, face to face, and really
listening.
From father to founder
The idea for LifeBook Memoirs began, like so many meaningful things, close to home. Roy’s father was in his late 80s, blind and slipping into depression.
“I was too busy to really sit and listen to him,” Roy admits. “I kept brushing off his stories. And then I realised I needed to do something – not just for the stories but to give him something to look forward to.”
Roy arranged for one of his contacts to visit his father each week and begin recording his life’s memories. It was, on the surface, a kindness. But what emerged was something far deeper: a sense of connection, companionship and ultimately, a story that Roy himself had never fully heard.
“There was one story about our ancestor being the king of Poland for a night. I had no idea. And now I can’t ask him more about it, because he’s gone.”
From that intimate project came the seed of LifeBook Memoirs, now a global company that pairs people with skilled interviewers, ghostwriters, project managers and editors to craft bespoke, printed family memoirs.
Private pages, lasting words
Patti and Roy talked about the fact that a LifeBook project is not some form of vanity publishing. It’s not about selling books to strangers or polishing egos. In fact, each LifeBook is limited to just 10, 15 or 25 copies (depending on the package you choose), printed on archival-quality paper and designed to stay in the family for generations. This focus on intimate, lasting impact underscores Roy’s philosophy:
“An
inheritance is what you
give to someone,” he told Patti. “A
legacy is what you put into them.”
That distinction runs through every single LifeBook. Unlike digital media, which vanishes with forgotten passwords or becomes unreadable with outdated formats, a book endures. As Roy put it to Patti, “You can still turn the pages of the Magna Carta, but try reading a floppy disk from the ’90s!”
The analogue antidote
In an era where Instagram stories vanish within 24 hours and most of us struggle to remember the names of our great-grandparents, Roy argues that preserving memories has never been more urgent.
“You can’t Google your grandmother,” he says. “You can’t find her wisdom online. When someone passes, their story passes with them.”
The process behind a LifeBook is deliberately and resolutely analogue, and in-person interviews form the core of the experience. Roy is adamant that this human touch is irreplaceable.
“You don’t want to Zoom a 92-year-old talking about losing a husband or laughing about their youth. You want to be there – to hand them a glass of water, to hold their hand.”
This commitment to connection also serves another purpose: combating loneliness. The statistics are bleak – in the UK alone,
4.6 million people over the age of 65 speak to another human being just once a month. According to research from Holt-Lunstad et al. (2015),
chronic loneliness carries health risks equivalent to smoking 11 cigarettes a day.
Combating loneliness, one story at a time
The stories that come out of these conversations are rarely about net worth or career wins. More often, they reveal the emotional DNA of a family. One grandfather told Roy that he started his memoir after overhearing his grandson describe him as “just rich.” That stung. The man had emigrated to the USA with $4 in his pocket and built his life from scratch.
“If I don’t write it down,” he said, “they’re going to think I was
just rich.”
These books become heirlooms – sometimes unexpectedly powerful ones. Roy shared a message that he received from a client whose father, now battling dementia, clings to his LifeBook as a memory anchor.
“It’s like he downloaded his memory,” the client wrote, “and now he can hold it in his hands.”
Even the production of a LifeBook is meticulous. Every photo is enhanced, every chapter edited with care and each voice recording – yes, there’s an audio element too – captured to preserve not just the words but the warmth behind them.
From sandwiches to stories
Roy’s appearance on
The Patti Brennan Show wasn’t just promotional; it was personal. He spoke candidly about his unlikely journey from airline catering to legacy storytelling and about the responsibility we all have to ask, listen and record the stories that matter. As he put it, “You can’t insure your memory – we’re all going to lose it at some stage – but you
can insure your memories if you write them down.”
In a culture that prizes speed and surface, LifeBook Memoirs offers something rare: depth, care and endurance. The gift of a lifetime, indeed.
Listen to Roy and Patti’s conversation on
The Patti Brennan Show by
clicking here.
Written by Steve Edwards, LifeBook Memoirs editor
