34. The Story Behind the Object: Legacy Planning Through a Human Lens

We talk with Heather Nickerson, founder of Artifcts, about turning everyday objects into a clear legacy of stories, value, and wishes so families aren't left guessing in grief. We connect memory, privacy, caregiving, and photo organization into simple steps you can start today with just one object.

• Heather's story of losing her mother suddenly and facing a home full of "tangible assets"
• Why objects create stress during grief, and how documenting meaning reduces family conflict
• The "eldest daughter tax" and how caregiving can show up as estate and logistics work
• How Artifcts works as a personal digital museum with photos, stories, audio, and video
• Using a five-item Legacy List to capture identity without needing expensive heirlooms
• Recording "what happens next" for keepsakes — bequeathing, donating, or keeping in the family
• Downsizing and decluttering while keeping the memories and context
• QR codes that connect physical items to digital stories, including use in independent living
• Reminiscence support for dementia care through visual prompts and a flipbook view
• What Photo Managers do, and how Save Your Photos Month supports DIY photo preservation

Heather Nickerson is the Founder and CEO of Artifcts.com. She is an avid hiker, skier, baker, storyteller, and collector of memories. Prior to founding Artifcts Heather served as President of a private security company and authored a book on how to protect your privacy. She also served for nearly a decade as an intelligence analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency, including serving as a briefer in a war zone tour in Afghanistan. 

 Heather’s inspiration for Artifcts came after inheriting 6,000 square feet of ‘stuff’ from her mother’s estate and having to figure out not only what the ‘stuff’ was, but what her mother would have wanted to happen to it. 

Connect with Heather and learn more about Artifcts:  https://artifcts.com/about

The Photo Managers:  https://thephotomanagers.com/

Take a listen to the conversation with Whitney Myers:  https://capturingessenceforcare.buzzsprout.com/2460133/episodes/17615232

Thank you for listening!

Do you have a question or a topic related to "capturing essence for care" that you would like discussed on the podcast?  

Email:  awestruckaspirations@gmail.com

Or use the "Send us Fan Mail" link at the top of the Episode Description to text the show!

Interested in learning more?  

• Check out my Etsy Shop
• Visit my YouTube channel or website

Intro and outro music with thanks:  Upbeat and Sweet No Strings by Musictown 

Lisa brings over 25 years of experience working in healthcare settings with older adults. The perspectives shared on this podcast are her own and do not represent the views of any past or current employer. Patient/resident stories are shared only with explicit permission or as anonymized composites for educational purposes.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Welcome And The Mission

Lisa 0:04

Welcome to Capturing Essence for Care, where we discuss the importance of incorporating personal life stories into healthcare and share ideas to help you on your journey. I'm your host, Lisa Jaworski. Welcome to Capturing Essence for Care. This is a podcast about the stories, creativity, and connections that make us who we are and the difference they make when it matters most. And with me today is Heather Neckerson, and she reached out to me, and I'm so glad she did. There's a few things we have in common, and one thing I really want to learn more about, um, called Photo Managers, which we'll get into later. But she is the founder and CEO of Artifacts, and the way it's spelled, I'll say it now, Heather, but I know we'll talk about it later on as well, is A-R-T-I-F-C-T-S.com. So uh I just want to make sure that people know exactly where to find artifacts.com. And one of the parts I'm realizing I deeply love about about the podcast guests that I'm having on is the personal mission behind the reason why that people are doing the work that they're doing. And so in Heather's case, I'll allow her to share more, but it has to do with her mom and a bit of a story behind what happened there. So, Heather, thank you so much for joining. And I love that the work that you're doing is really leading from capturing essence. And since this show is about capturing essence for care, we're exploring it in all different ways. So thank you so much for joining me and sharing your wisdom with us today.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Thank you so much, Lisa. It is an honor to be here, and I'm super excited for our conversation.

Lisa 1:48

So Me too, me too. Tell me more. Tell us just about artifacts, where it came from. And since I already alluded to the fact that this had to do, this was kind of stemmed from your mother. Can you tell us more about the the reason

A Sudden Loss Sparks An Idea

Lisa 2:05

behind artifacts? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

And I will try to do so without getting teary-eyed. So artifacts itself is a digital platform. You can think of us as your personal digital museum or your personal digital scrapbook, but it helps people capture, preserve, and share the histories, the stories, the memories, and the value behind all their keepsakes. So how Artifacts started was that over 10 years ago, I lost my mother and it was very much out of the blue. She was fairly young. Um, she otherwise was healthy. Um, I had a call with her on a Friday evening and Saturday morning. I was getting a phone call from the doctors that she was on life support. Long story very short, she passed away. Um, I'm the eldest. My brothers turned to me and said, Great. So good luck cleaning out the house. Don't toss out anything important, and send us a check when you're done. Um, which you think about it, like you, and I will just back up for a moment. My mother, she had an estate plan. So going through this whole process, you have all this grief and sadness of losing a parent. But then you get down to like the logistical details, right? And we're like, all right, mom's got an estate plan. Awesome, this won't be hard. What we discovered was on page 23 of her estate plan, all tangible assets were to be divided equally among myself and my brothers. The good thing was none of us had conflict, so that was we weren't, you know, at odds with each other. The bad thing was you can fit a lot of stuff in 6,000 square feet of a house. Holy cow. So I was at the time president of a private security company. We were nationwide, even we had projects on four different continents. I was traveling all around the country. And then on weekends, I found myself flying back up from Washington, D.C. to the Boston area to deal with my mother's items, trying to figure out what were the keepsakes, what were the family heirlooms, what were the items that could simply be tossed. And it was really tough because objects don't magically jump into piles and sort themselves into like, I'm a family heirloom, you know, like I'm a keepsake, I am something really important. Or the converse is that I bought this at a yard sale. I don't care what you do with it. Um, and that was really that was that was my pain point. So two years later, I kept thinking there had to be a better way to do this. And that is where artifacts was created. Um, we spent several years doing a ton of research and thinking about what we could build to make it better and easier for loved ones to pass down again, those histories, stories, even the value. You don't ever want to be that family member that, you know, donates the vase to goodwill and you're on the news a couple weeks later because someone else bought it and discovered it's this million-dollar vase. Like you don't want that, right? So um, so that was kind of the genesis of what became artifacts. And we've of course evolved over the years, but that's where we started. And to this day, we're still very focused on our mission to help families.

Lisa 5:19

Wow. So this obviously did not exist at the time that you were going through this. And I guess I I want to stop and just say, I'm sorry for your loss. I am learning that 10 years, one year, it doesn't matter. It's it's still a very significant and close loss. And so I'm sorry for for the loss of your mom. It's gonna be tough.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

It's it's tough, but it's also seeing what she has inspired, and now seeing 10 years out, like how many families we've been able to help. Yeah, like that is a really good feeling of like, all right, I think she would have been really proud. And I think you know, it's it's for helping families avoid what I had to go through, which is yes, at the end of the day, that's that's why we're doing this.

Lisa 6:03

So yes, and you can be proud of that, and you're doing it in honor of her, which, like you said, you're now you're helping others who, from your own experience, this was a probably a very hard and stressful time for you, right? And your family, but mostly it sounds like it it fell on you. Um, and we all know that that can, yeah, there's so many roles that people can take, yeah, especially in it. Doesn't sound maybe so much like the caregiving role for your mom, but there's a million other roles in life. So to add something else on top, that would have been a lot.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

And there's a whole, there's a bunch of research now that's, you know, there's being called the eldest daughter tax. And it's so true. It starts with the caregiving. And in some ways, we're very fortunate. My mother, it was out of the blue. We didn't have a long caregiving tale until she passed. However, it's, you know, caregiving takes many aspects. And in this case, it was it was taking care of the estate and like what happened afterwards. But there's there's a ton of data now showing that women end up usually being the primary caregivers, whether it's a spouse or parents or children. And it's it does take the toll and it takes its tax, essentially. And that's I've I've been very fascinated by this research as it as new data is published or new stories come out, but it's I think we all at some point can probably relate to it because we've probably all experienced it too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lisa 7:28

So true. Eldest daughter. I never really thought about it that way. You think about I've heard of daughters like females kind of taking on more of the role, but the eldest daughter is interesting. Okay, so I want to ask you um first, just I guess logistically, thinking of so you were working in these other roles, doing this privacy work, and I I want to hear more about that side of things. And then how did you then you had this idea? How did you move forward with such a grand and wonderful idea? But how did you actually put it into action after?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

That's

Grief, Estates, And Family Burden

SPEAKER_01 8:05

a great question. So for me, I'm a very, I think very logical. Um, I think not risk adverse, but I want to know that like the things are lined up to take action. So I did spend a couple years doing research, market research, and I found there are a ton of different apps and programs. If you want to capture someone's stories, there's 10 ways to Sunday from books to audio to podcast, you name it. And then I also, on the other side, if you're dealing with physical items, there's a ton of inventory apps. Um, what was missing was that essentially combined space where you're dealing with the physical items. Oftentimes there's a story or history, and sometimes there's even tremendous financial value. But there was nothing combining the two. So I did my research and then I set out to find a really amazing development team, a tech team, because I do not have a technology background. Um, my background is in privacy and security and intelligence. And we were talking before, I started my career with the Central Intelligence Agency, not the Culinary Institute of America, but the Central Intelligence, like that CIA. The CIA. The actual CIA. Wow.

Lisa 9:15

I don't talk to people every day who have worked for the CIA.

unknown 9:19

No.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

But I was in that role that, you know, you learn how to protect information. You learn the importance of privacy and security. And from that role, I was head-hunted out to go run and grow a private security firm. So I spent nearly two decades, although not a technologist myself. And what I mean by that is I'm not gonna be the one sitting there encoding. That is not my skill set, but understanding the importance of protecting people's personal information, protecting their stories, protecting their family memories. At the end of the day, it takes a lot of trust to be like, all right, I'm gonna put all of this, whether it's financial details about a specific heirloom or a piece of jewelry, or it's your most precious memories about mom or grandmom. I'm gonna put this into this platform. You've got to trust it. And that is where we started from the get-go was how do we build the trust? How do we maintain security and privacy? And then my job, having grown a security firm, I knew how to grow a business. So I set out to find the right people to do the different roles. And a big part of that was the technologists, people that could code. Um, I needed a really good graphic designer because my daughter would tell you my idea of graphic design is a bunch of colored pencils or crayons. And I actually, for some of our initial mock-ups of our website, like I actually sent our graphic designer like photos of what I drew in crayons. Um so that's great. And we artifact that we we have actually been using artifacts to document our company history and especially has we how we've brought that. But yeah, I've got the the initial like little logo sketches, and it was either crayons or colored pencils. And so finding the right people, and this is, I think this is kind of like with caregiving, right? You want to find the right team to support whatever the situation is. So,

Building Trust Through Privacy And Security

SPEAKER_01 11:10

in some ways, it's no different than building a company, is finding the right team to do the right job and to do it really well and to be, I think, as passionate as you are. Um, and that's that's what I did. So I built the team and then we we built the platform and all the time we've always um been very fortunate to have like a very loyal member base and and we always ask for feedback and we take it seriously. So when our members say, Hey, it'd be great if artifacts could do this, we're like, that's a great idea. Let's have it do that. Right. And we so we have that like very strong feedback cycle with our community, which which helps us continue to grow and scale. Yes, yes.

Lisa 11:49

That's really cool. So it's a it just so I understand, the listeners understand, it's on a membership basis then for for artifacts. So you sign up, probably because you want to keep your artifacts there in a secure area. Yes. So you pay probably a monthly amount so that you can secure your things and have them there for you to access.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, it's an annual fee, but we also a big part of this is that we um so one of our members of our advisory board is Matt Paxton, who's the star of hoarders and currently Filthy Fortunes. Okay. Um he has he also starred in in the US on PBS's legacy list, which that show was all about your five items that tell your your personal story, your legacy. So for artifacts, because we work very closely with Matt and his team, you get five free artifacts, no matter what, for like as long as you're here and part of the artifacts community. So it's meant to be anyone anywhere can build their legacy list. You can pick five items that tell your story. And it they may be five items from different like decades. They could be five items from like milestone events. Maybe it's like graduation or a marriage or the birth of a child, like whatever it happens to be. Um, but everyone gets five artifacts to build that legacy list. So it's yes, we do have memberships for those that are really into it, but we're also on a mission to help people like preserve and document and then share with the next generation what are these moments and items that that tell it? So for instance, you might think about oh, if my marriage is one of those items, I'd I'd artifact my wedding band. And maybe if we had our vows written, or, you know, I am horrible at preserving flowers and I know this. So in my case, I artifacted my wedding bouquet. Oh, and that's the artifact from my wedding, right? And I tell the story about the day and the excitement and the nerves and kind of everything. Yeah, but for me, the the symbolism of that day is it's my wedding bouquet. Um so it's you can pick different objects.

Lisa 13:56

Okay, so so this is like um pictures. You could take images of the things that are important to you, and then you can also write about the significance and how that fits in, like do almost like a journal, like a log entry or something that would explain that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yep, and you can add audio and video. So this is why we say like it's kind of like your personal digital museum. You think about going to a museum and you look at all the artifacts, it's felt with the second A, but you look at the items that are in the museum case, right? Typically you get a little tiny card and you may know the date or kind of a little bit about it. Our goal is we all have those items in our life. Like, tell the full story, like share the history. If there is financial value, make sure your family knows, like, dear children, this does not go in the goodwill bin, like this or pass it down or whatever it happens to be. So it's it really is meant to combine photo, video, audio, story. And then within artifacts, we have a lot of like optional fields, but one of them is called in the future. You can actually decide what do you want to happen to this item next. And you can be as like generic as you want, like keep in the family. Great, that's one of the options. Your family knows, hey, something happens to mom, like this is gonna stay in the family. You can also be as specific as you want. One of the options is bequeath, and you can determine like which actual person and their contact details will get this. You can also choose you want to donate, like tell your family, when I'm gone, I want to donate this piece of art to the local museum or this historical item to the local historical society. And you can put in the contact details there. So it's very again, it's meant to not just, you know, it's you're telling the stories, but you're also providing your family for these are my wishes. This is the roadmap. You no longer have to think and stress about this after you've lost someone you love.

Lisa 15:54

Yes.

Your Personal Digital Museum Explained

Lisa 15:55

It's like your will, right? Like you explain a lot of the information and not your whole will. Like probably not a replacement, but a wonderful complement to capture, like these are the things that I want to go to this either individual or organization, or you can get rid of it, or whatever it might be, but help someone to organize their thoughts and their items in a more personal way, um, so that it's better understood, probably.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

It's exactly just like that. So when you do your will or an estate plan, they're gonna typically give you an Excel spreadsheet or they're gonna give you a bunch of notebook paper and tell you to go do your tangible asset memorandum, which is what my mother didn't do. You know, a lot of people, at least in the US, a lot of people were like, oh, I'll just divide it among, you know, my kids or my nieces and nephews, whatever it is. But when you think about there is a study, I think it was out of the LA Times a couple years back, um, but it said that the average home in the US has over 300,000 objects. Really? Yes. And I I think they were counting like every chair, every glass, like 300,000, right? So if you think about I'm just looking around decisions, yeah. Wow. That's a lot of stuff you have to decide, right? Like someone has to decide, like, what are we doing with this cup? What are we doing with this face? Like it's it's those little decisions that when you're grieving, like it takes a toll.

Lisa 17:27

So yes, and the things it things aren't always monetary value, right? Like I remember, I remember when I was little and going to my grandparents' home, and they had my grandmother had like a curio cabinet with different teacups, like China. Um, and I always adored this one little teacup that had like purple flowers on it, and I'm not even sure what they are now. And I remember her saying, you can have that when I'm not here anymore, you can have that little teacup, you know, and I just thought it was so pretty. But like she said it to me, but I don't like I don't know where that cup is, and nobody would have done anything with it, you know, like they didn't want me to have it. But if you don't know that it was like something special, right, then then the it just goes if you need to kind of clear things out, right? So it doesn't have to be something extravagant or that costs a lot, it could just have that that value and that memory that's attached to it.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah. And what we found doing our research, like talking with like with folks as we were building the platform, it wasn't usually the really valuable items that caused like kind of you know fights among family members. Yeah, it was Nana's needlepoint cushions because there's no way you could ever go buy another set of Nana's needlepoint cushions. Like there's only one. And that's the people like we heard you wouldn't believe the stories we heard, but we heard folks being like, oh, well, you know, my mother, my grandmother had told us to go like put post-it notes or like little colored dot stickers on the items we wanted, and it was all color-coded. But then you'd hear, but but then my cousin came through and and changed the stickers or like move the post-its, and you just you have this giant family drama.

Lisa 19:13

Yeah, and you don't want that. Like if we just make it easy, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yep.

Lisa 19:18

Wow. So who who do you think your main clientele is? I don't know if that's a strange question, but like do you find it's older adults, like seniors? Is it people that are younger kind of planning ahead? Is it more for legacy? Like, what what is the purpose that people nest tend to reach out?

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah, that's a really great question. Um, for us, we have members age 16 to 97. Okay. That said, the majority of our members are typically between the ages of 40 and 65. They're essentially that they're like that sandwich generation, right? Yeah. You're probably dealing with all your kids' stuff if you have kids. Yeah. And you're probably dealing with your parents' stuff if they're still around. And we find that they are typically really overwhelmed by I just, I need to do something here. And they may first come to artifacts. There's there's typically one of two ways. Um, one is they're thinking about downsizing and decluttering.

unknown 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And they want to use artifacts to keep the memories while they let go of the items. They could artifact, say, you know, artifact the family dining room table that seats 12 that is no way, no how, kind of move into your assisted living facility or your independent living facility. They can keep the memory, let go of the table. And then they can view the artifact anytime they want. They can show their friends, like, this is our dining room table. Here's the photos of the table, photos of us at, you know, holiday meals, at birthday celebrations, whatever. The other side, like the other way people may come to us is that if they are thinking about legacy planning, they're updating their estate plan, they're doing their will. Um, sometimes folks, maybe if they live in a fire zone or a flood zone or hurricane, they see something horrible happen a town over, and they start thinking, oh my gosh, I have not documented anything. And there's certain things insurance can never replace. Again, Nana's made a point cushions. Like, there's no amount of money that's going to bring back those cushions. So people may come to us from kind of that we call it the preparedness bucket, but it's that again, legacy, end of life insurance, like being prepared for what if what's really interesting that we have seen over the years is that regardless which bucket you start with, either downsizing decluttering, or kind of that like legacy preparedness bucket, you typically end up crossing over at some point. So you realize on the downsizing decluttering side, once you artifact the items you are getting, essentially you're in a rehome or donate that can't make a move with you. You then realize well, wait a sec, I have all these things I am taking with me. And they have stories and history. And maybe you start artifacting your jewelry collection for your grandkids or your. Your art or whatever it is. The other side is true too. If you start kind of artifacting those things that you want to be passed down, you then start realizing, well, wait a sec, I've got a spare bedroom that hasn't been a spare bedroom in decades. And it's full of, you know, like kids, old kid trophies from school and kid artwork and greeting cards I've kept in a box for, you know, decades. And you start artifacting those items and then guilt-free, recycle them or re-home them or repurpose them. So it's very interesting. Like, again, depending which bucket you start, people typically cross over and they realize, like, oh, well, I can do this too.

Lisa 22:42

That's so smart. Yes. And you're right. I could see how both would be true. Like, no matter where you start, that it's probably going to end up being both, just a matter of which order you start and end in. Do you do something with QR

Document Value And Future Wishes

Lisa 22:55

codes?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

We do. So every artifact you create, you can print at home, no extra cost, a QR code. You can choose small, medium, or large. Um, we love to say if you've got a bunch of old family photos sitting in frames, this is a great part to start artifacting with. Tell the story. Who's who? What are they doing? Why is that photo framed? Pop a QR code on the back. And that way something ever happens to you, your loved ones can scan the QR code, up pops the history, the story, the reason why that photo is in the frame. The same goes for artwork, or like if you have jewelry you want to pass down, put the QR code in your jewelry box. So we do we have QR codes as a way to connect the physical object with the digital artifact.

Lisa 23:46

Could you, because I'm I don't know if you know this or not, but uh like I really believe that having a little video of you know the person's voice and their body language and that kind of thing is really helpful for say healthcare staff who don't know the person other than patient number number 22 or whatever it might be. Um do you think a QR code could be used to then watch a video of the person? Or are there privacy risks? Like, how would that is that a thing? And how could it be a thing if it's not? I don't, I'm just curious if you have had this. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

So we have actually one of our members when she moved into independent living, she'd been artifacting, she had a couple hundred artifacts. Um, she wanted to share with her friends like her new, like as she was meeting the people in her new independent living facility. So she started showing people like the artifacts and QR code, and she could even put a QR code outside her door next to her name, like learn about me and my history. And she had really because on artifacts, you can make some artifacts public. So we are private, everything you create is private by default. Okay, however, you have the option to make and share publicly if you want to. So she was able to choose some that were public. She kept a bunch private, but it was a great, she got the nickname The Storyteller. Um, pretty much. Oh, that's cool. So there's a lot of ways you can use artifacts, I think, in a caregiving environment, even if it's you have you're sitting around, you have downtime, you're tired of talking about the weather, you can pick up an object and say, Hey, tell me the story behind this.

Lisa 25:26

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

And it's pretty amazing like what you learn about someone when you ask, like, tell me about this object. Yes, it's very different than you know, I think a lot of times you ask someone, like, well, tell me your life story.

unknown 25:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Do you start? Yeah, exactly. Where it's like, tell me the story behind this carved duck.

Lisa 25:44

And like 15 minutes later, you're like, Well, I never knew that. So absolutely, yeah. That's I think about like visual stimulation and just having something where you know you're prompting memories, you're giving those cues. Um, and especially like if you're working with somebody who has memory changes, right? Like having that cue is really important to stimulate that memory for them to be able to share information on. So that's it goes right into reminiscence and supporting people where they're at, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

And that's one of the reasons within artifacts. Um, you can view your artifacts either in a timeline, which is auto-populated as you create your artifacts. Um, you can view it kind of a grid style, which we joke is the it's the Instagram view if you're used to seeing things kind of like in nice squares and grids. Okay. But we also made a flip book like a view. Like so you can actually view your artifacts. It works great if you're on a tablet. You can view your artifacts and then essentially flip the page. And this was because we were hearing from folks that were um working with dementia care or working with um like other memory, like mild concept impairments, but having that flipbook view was a great way to reminisce, to help recall those details, those stories. So again, this is you know, we probably would not have thought of that on our own, but getting feedback from our members who were like, hey, yeah, I'm artifacting with my mom and the grid view is a little small for her to see. Can you do something more like a book view? And it was it was a great idea, and we now have the flip book view.

Lisa 27:21

So wow, that's very neat. I love this. I'm so curious now because I mentioned photo managers earlier, and Whitney Myers, who was on a previous episode, and I can link to that one as well, mentioned she. I remember her saying, I think I mentioned this to you in a previous conversation where she said, you need you need to learn more and connect with photo managers. So I'm really curious. Can you share? Because I honestly still know nothing really about it. It comes up because I follow, you know, on social media, but I would love if you could share a little bit about what is photo managers and why it would be something that would be helpful for us to learn more about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

So I will state that I am on the advisory

Downsizing Without Losing The Memories

SPEAKER_01 28:05

board of the photo managers. So I have been involved with them for the past um from the business side going on five years now. Um, on the advisory board side, this is my going into I'm in my second year going into my third year on the advisory board. Um I think everyone needs to know about the photo managers. What they are, they are an association that is not just nationwide, but international. So they have chapters across the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, um, different chapters across Europe. But they are collectively as a group, they are trained and vetted and certified, essentially think of them as organizers for your photos. They are there to help you if you, and it it could be a number of things. Maybe you're dealing with bins and bins of physical photos. You've inherited, you're the family keeper, right? You maybe have a couple generations of old photos sitting in your attic. Um, I will just say right now, please don't store old photos in attics. They don't like the heat. It's not a good idea. But say you have these bins, right? You can call a photo manager, they'll help you scan and digitize and then organize. And maybe you're organizing by year or you want to organize by person or by family or whatever it is, but you can work with your photo manager to get the physical photos digitized and then organized based on how you want them to organize. They'll do all the work for you. The other side is if you're dealing with, you know, nowadays, I think all of us have, you know, our smartphones and we have 20,000, 30,000, who knows how many photos on them. They will help you organize that. So you're you're leaving your family, not a giant photo dump at the end.

Lisa 29:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Um, and again, they can help depending on how, again, if you want to do it by year or um person or family or travel instance or whatever it is, they'll help you curate your photo collection. Um, some photo managers also have additional certifications. Um, for instance, uh making like with photo books or with legacy, like funeral celebrations of life, like doing uh photo boards or storyboards for funerals. Um, I actually teach the privacy advocate course for the photo manager. So some photo managers get additional training in how to protect their clients' privacy. And they're able to, not just when they're doing the projects, but throughout the year, give their clients advice about staying safe and secure online. Since so many photos these days are digital, they are online. So as a group, the photo managers, it's really a tremendous resource if you are ever feeling overwhelmed and you want to preserve the stories and the history behind the photos, but you don't know where to start, you want someone to help you, contact the photo managers. They have members in all 50 states, um, a ton of countries, and they've gone through a training and certification process. So you can trust them to, you know, treat your photos with dignity.

Lisa 31:08

Um do they have it in Canada too?

SPEAKER_01 31:10

I just they have a very awesome um contingent uh all across from British Columbia, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, um, Prince Edward Island. I mean, it is a it is a tremendous um resource, US, Canada, and overseas. So okay.

Lisa 31:29

That's awesome. Are there so they have a YouTube, like I'm trying to think about are there opportunities for people who aren't members? I don't know if that's the right way to say it. Like, are there learning opportunities for people like me or somebody that I'm trying to support to learn more? Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

So one of the things they do every year is called Save Your Photos Month. And it is in September. And you can go to their YouTube channel, which is just the photo managers on YouTube. You can also sign up, they have an email, um, like a newsletter you can sign up for, all totally free, that you will learn the specific dates for Save Your Photos Month. Save Your Photos Month essentially the entire month. It's different, it's daily programming of kind of DIY. So how to de-dupe, so get rid of duplicates of your photos, how to um make a photo book, how to like they they give you tips and tricks for kind of any situation you'd encounter when dealing with photos. And it's meant to um it this grew out of the the founder of the photo managers um 15 years ago. She was approached by someone after um one of the hurricanes on the East Coast. And she had, you know, they were trying to piece together their family photo history, and it was just it was born out of a mission, like a passion of love to try to teach everyone kind of anywhere, like do something today because there's no guarantee those photos are gonna last for generations. So take time to preserve, take time to, if you want to document, if you want to scan, if you

QR Codes For Care And Connection

SPEAKER_01 33:05

want to do whatever it is, um, that's where Save Your Photos Month came from. Because I think for so many people, photos are the lifeline of their family history, right? Um so they do the entire month. There's great content. Um, there's a lot, if you go to the YouTube channel, they also have previous years recordings on theirs. You can take, you can watch some kind of DIY tutorials and get some tips from professional photo managers. I think one of the great things about the photo managers is that so many of the professionals um also teach the courses for Save Your Photos Month. So you're getting expert advice and is you're able to do it at your own pace.

Lisa 33:48

I love that idea. And I often think like one of the great tools is like having a photo book for somebody to be able to sift through and look at the pictures. Usually I think you can, well, at least the ones I've seen, you can have like a little sentence or something like labeled with the names or a little story to go along with it. Um, so I I love that idea. And sometimes as much as I like the idea, I'm like, so how would I do that? You know, when I see other people know how, but like I think it's helpful that there's those resources. Like if you do actually want to know how, there's probably several ways, but you can go and learn more about those ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

I would definitely check out Save Your Photos Month. It is chock full of information and it's you're also part of the community that's you realize you're not alone, right? Like there's every like there's so many other people who are in the same situation. And I think together, when you when you realize that, it's like, all right, like I got this, like I can.

Lisa 34:44

Yeah. And like you said at the very beginning, like there, if you really did the research, which is what I found for several years after diving into all of these things, there are so many different avenues, like apps and different writing groups and different, you know, video, like there's there's so much to take in that it can be really overwhelming. So I love that. That that's a great resource. And when people are just starting out, it's nice to be able to get some free tips along the way, right? From trust and resources. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, this has been fantastic. I so appreciate you sharing so much knowledge and and your insights with us. Thank you so much. Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you would like to share?

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Gosh, I can't think of anything off the top of my head. This has been a really fun conversation, Lisa. And I um no, I think I think if there's one piece of advice I can give your listeners is don't wait until tomorrow. Like we are alive today. Um, it can take you don't have to use artifacts. So you can literally, you could take a post-it, you could take a notebook, but pick an object. And again, starting with a framed photograph is a great way to start. We all have them somewhere. Yes. Share with your family why is that photo framed? I love that idea. Who is in that photo? What's the story behind that photo? Because I can guarantee you, one generation removed, they're not gonna know. Yes. And it's I I had that. I discovered a photo of my mother, and my daughter asked, Who is that? She thought it was still the black and white stock image with the actual photo frame. And I was like, no, sweetie, that that's grandmom. And she was like, No, grandmom doesn't look like that. Like she remembered my mom as being, you know, like in her 60s and short hair and not 20 something, and you know, so start today is my advice.

Lisa 36:39

Yes, exactly. And I like the idea, I think I'm gonna have to start doing it more often, um, of of having a picture or something that you talk about. Yeah, you know, like it goes along really well with with journaling, but there's a purpose behind it and the legacy of these items

Photo Managers And Save Your Photos Month

Lisa 36:55

that are significant. And thank you for saying, like, you don't have to have artifacts to do it, right? You just start where you are with what you have. Um and I I I worked with somebody who I just loved her idea of she had like a recipe scrapbook. So every she had a recipe on each page, along with a picture of you know, the family eating that recipe, and then talk about like when they made that and you know what kinds of events. But it's the same sort of idea, like it captures these little life stories, right? In in such a meaningful way where you're learning the history about the item, maybe a recipe along with that and the story that that ties in. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

We actually had one of our one of our very first members at Artifacts, she shared the story with us, and we actually we have a video of her on our site because it was it made us cry, but her grandmom was in hospital, um, hospice, and her grandmom was the the family secret keeper, including the family secret biscuit recipe. So the entire family asked grandmom, like, we're not gonna make it to the next Thanksgiving. Like, we all know this. What's the recipe? So she she shared the recipe, quote unquote, and her granddaughter made the recipe as it was shared, and the biscuits were nothing like what grandma makes. So the granddaughter got in the car and drove across two states to hospice to visit grandmom and brought all the ingredients, said, Okay, grandma, what's the actual recipe? Because your biscuits are not going to the grave with you. And then she recorded her grandmom actually like showing how to knead the dough and how to mix the ingredients. So for them, like it's got again, is that the recipe is one piece of it, but then for them, they have their grandmother's voice. They actually have video showing like her hands like kneading the dough, which is incredible. And then they actually have the the real recipe.

Lisa 38:59

So oh, that's so cool. Yeah, there's so much for the sneaky, hey. Yeah, I'm glad they went back though and got that video. Like, let's actually see and taste them after too. Well, thank you for this. I do have one more question for you, and I think I well, I don't know the answer, but I think I know how you'll answer, and I'll give you the clue. So often at the end, I'll ask a question about if you weren't able to speak up for yourself, like an advocate and say what really matters to you, what would you want others to know about you? So, you know, I think about like if you're a month or two in the hospital and you maybe your family wasn't right there to share about who Heather is, um, what would be important to you? And I the part of the answer that I want to give you, or I'm wondering might be the answer. I wonder if it would go back to whatever five items you would have in your artifacts. But because I'm guessing you've done that, that um project yourself. So I'll leave that open. It doesn't have to be that, but I thought I'd kind of tie that together.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

I think I would want people to know that I loved and lived life to its absolute fullest. And of those five items, one is a pair of hiking boots that have been to four continents and have hiked thousands of miles and were with me when I was serving our country in Afghanistan. Like that's a piece of my history. Like most people are kind of like, it's just a pair of hiking boots. No, that tells my story. No, another is, you know, um, my love language is food, and I bake to show the love and care. So one of my other items is actually my mother's cookbooks, which are now my cookbooks and which my daughter has already claimed dibs on. She's not letting any of her siblings have those cookbooks. So I think for me, it's just it's I'd want people to know that zest for life. And if I couldn't speak up, it's do the right thing,

Five Items That Tell A Life

SPEAKER_01 40:55

be a good human. Um, have heart. Like that is, I think the most important thing. So if someone else had to make decisions for me, it's knowing that um I think matters of the heart are most important. And every day, every moment, it's it matters.

Lisa 41:11

So wow, beautiful. You can tell you've done the work and you know, you know what matters and and how you would relay that. So thank you so much for everything you've shared and for being so open and for your work with artifacts, you know. Like I I admire and uh I admire you, and it's just inspiring to hear what people are doing in honor of their loved ones and to make the world a better place. So thank you. Thank you so much, Lisa. I've really enjoyed our conversation. Thanks for listening today. If you enjoyed this episode, take a minute to look at the show notes for resources and links, and be sure to leave me a rating and review. And also you can follow the show so that you get notified of when the next one comes out. And lastly, if you can think of somebody in your life who you think would enjoy this podcast, I hope you share it with them as well so that they can listen in on the conversations and ponder how to capture their own essence. Take care, and I look forward to the next time.