Meet Sue Hayward, Founder of this unique storytelling + business idea

A unique concept that captures life stories, experiences and adventures, Grand Stories is a wonderful local business founded by Sue Hayward.

And we love it…….the idea, the process and what it provides for families, historians and generations to come.

We caught up with Sue at her Moss Vale home to chat about how it all started, what to expect from a Grand Stories experience and why she loves doing what she does.

1 :: Let’s start with your career background, Sue.

I mostly worked in health services since I moved from Adelaide to Sydney. I lived in Adelaide for 30 years after I moved with my family at the age of 16 from Jersey in the Channel Islands to Australia.  

In Adelaide, I worked in the learning and development and management consulting area so followed that career pathway working for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service in Sydney for ten years and then the New South Wales Medical Council followed by taking on the Director of Corporate Services role at AHPRA [the Australian Health Practitioner’s Regulation Agency].

I was very involved in Rotary and have been most of my life so I took on the role of Rotary District Governor for the southern part of Sydney in 2018, which is when I gave up work and focused on my role with Rotary. It was a large area, from Circular Quay to Shellharbour and right across to the base of the Blue Mountains.

2 :: And it was your role and your involvement with Rotary that kick started Grand Stories, is that right?

Yes, this project started about 15 years ago. Many of the Rotary Clubs were celebrating their 60th and 70th anniversaries and they’d been started by businessmen in their forties [it was only men back in those days but it isn’t now] .

A lot of these original Rotarians were now in their eighties and nineties and sadly passing on, which meant that a lot of their clubs were losing their history with the members they lost.

So we decided to start this project called Grand Stories where we could capture the histories of these people. While I was in the role of Community Services Director, I was very active in driving the project, training others, getting lots of interviews done and capturing lots of life stories.

But after I left that role with Rotary, the Grand Stories project slowed down.

3 :: So you decided to keep going with it…

That’s right. I’d retired and I had done a bit of TV and radio work years earlier and really enjoyed it.

I listen to Richard Fidler’s ‘Conversations’ on The ABC quite avidly and just love his interview style. I also enjoyed listening to how Andrew Denton interviewed people about their lives and just found it all so interesting, so I thought – ‘I’ll set up my own business called Grand Stories and capture people’s personal life stories’.

4 :: It’s so great you found yourself a new passion after you’d retired from the corporate world, too. How has Grand Stories evolved since then?

I’ve been doing it on and off for a couple of years now, interviewing plenty of people – a mix of business people, high profile people and every day, regular people who want to record the story of their life or business or family – capturing it on audio, and now we’ve started offering video options too.

This year I took part in the University of Wollongong’s iAccelerate RISE Program for start-up entrepreneurs and won the pitch component of it – that was a great local program to take part in. I’m off to the Regional Finals in March. 

5 :: How does it work? What’s the Grand Stories experience?

Clients can reach out to us via email or phone and I’ll have an initial consultation with them. That’s where I can meet with them and understand the environment where we’ll be recording our interview – is the fridge buzzing? Are there planes going overhead? Are there dogs barking?

Or we can use a studio that I have access to which allows us to control the environmental aspects of the audio. I have an audio editor who works in television so he’s fantastic at getting rid of background noise and sounds but I do like to make sure I keep the recording as clean as possible for him.

We can do a 30 minute interview or a 60 minute interview. We edit and save the recording which is then sent to the client on USB drive and on a secure link on Dropbox, so we are sure that file is there for retrieval. 

6 :: And you also create books from the interviews.

Yes, we do two types of transcriptions. One is a verbatim transcription of the interview. The client can either keep that on file or we can create a book from it and add things like photos.

The second type of transcription is really important from a historical research perspective. We create a transcription that a client can give to the State Library or their local library. It’s notated in a way for events, people, and dates to be easily trackable for anyone researching a particular person or subject.

So as an example, I interviewed a client a while back and one of her ancestors was allocated a plot of land in Pyrmont which he then quarried. The sandstone he quarried was used to build lots of the major buildings in the CBD. He was a contributor to the building of the city of Sydney, so people may be researching him and now they can find more information about him because of the transcription of the interview we did.

7 :: Tell us about some of the Grand Stories you’ve told so far.

It really is a mixed bag. There’s so many reasons why people want to capture all or elements of their life.

I have clients who tell the story of their business documenting the struggles and the success of starting something from scratch, wonderful people from the older generation who are sitting in a nursing home now but have had these incredible and adventurous lives, or we may be working with someone who wants to share one special part of their life such as a special travel experience or reminiscing about a much loved pet.

Many people just want to share their memories of a long and loving relationship and a family life that they hope will infuence future generations of their family. 

We also have clients who have left instructions and explanations about their will, so they can make it clear to their family why they have written it up the way they have. That’s pretty powerful!

8 :: What makes Grand Stories different from just sitting down with someone and recording an interview on a phone? Why should people reach out to Grand Stories?

Firstly, we use professionals. Whether they are interviewers, audio editors or our videographer, they’re all experts in their field. We use professional people for the purpose of creating a professional end product.

The quality of the recording – audio or video – is of a high standard.

The way we share the soft copies of those files – USB, Dropbox and keeping them on our Cloud – helps protect those stories.

And offering hard copies – whether it be a simple or notated transcription or a printed and bound book – is a special element to what we do, too. Lots of people really like having something tangible to keep.

9 :: You can also do interviews remotely too, can’t you?

Yes, I mainly work locally in the Highlands or Sydney or can go to Canberra but if people are further afield, we can do the interviews via Zoom.

We have also had some clients come to us. We’re working on an exciting project now with indigenous elders, so we are going to capture the stories of wonderful Aunties from the Central West – such a great way to keep the history of a culture alive.

10 :: What do you love the most about Grand Stories and what you do?

It’s so wonderful to be part of people sharing their stories. Many are leaving a legacy for their children and grandchildren, giving them a better understanding of who they are and importantly, who they were. That’s very special.

I love hearing about the wonderful achievements, the struggles and the way people have overcome adversity and also their lovely relationships. It really clarifies for me what is important in life – love, family, connection and community.

I feel privileged and honoured to be the one capturing these stories.

What an amazing idea and concept, right? We are so taken by this and encourage everyone reading to consider booking in a Grand Stories experience of their own. Christmas is on its way so how good would it be for the family to gather together and contribute to capturing the Grand Stories of grandparents or parents or the adventurous aunty or funcle?

It’s also great for business people wanting to tell the story of their business which can be used for training, for the foundations of writing their own book, for funding and grant applications. So many uses in this space too!

If you’re thinking about it, do it. How many times do we think to ourselves ‘I wish I had asked someone about that’  or ‘found out more about this’……don’t leave it too late! Life’s too short, people.

Grand Stories is a Southern Highlands based business capturing personalised stories – Your Story, In Your Own Voice. Head to the Grand Stories website for contact details, package information and an outline of what to expect from the whole experience.

Such an incredible concept – congrats Sue!

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