Hello friends. I'm so excited to bring this very uplifting conversation with a brand new podcast or to you today. her name is Rebecca and without further ado, we're just going to jump in and have some really fun conversation around authenticity and family legacies. Oh, Rebecca, thank you so much for being here with me for a little time to chat and share some stories and some reflections here on Picture Love. I'm so appreciative of your time. I am so happy to be here, Chris. Thank you for having me. This is such a treat. Yeah, you know, um, you are one of a handful of new friends that I've made. As a brand new podcaster, because we are coming up in the ranks together, learning alongside of each other in a course that has just really opened up a whole lot of them, personal growth and development for us. And, um, I'm just so grateful to count you among my new friends. And I love what you're doing with your audience and your creativity. And you are such a word Smith. And I love how you put smiles and humor. in, in what you do. Thank you. Well, I wrote down a couple of the words that you just said to me while we're getting ready to get started. And you said that your approach to your podcast is leaning into the quirkiness and I have many thoughts to come out of that, but could you just lean into that thought for me with, for a few minutes. Sure. Absolutely. So I, I, I consider myself a late bloomer and I consider myself a quirky person. Um, you know, kind of in that family of weird, weird sounds like way too like, like something is wrong. Right. But quirky is just not cookie cutter. None of us. So none of you know, what is cookie cutter. Right. You know, when we live life just as we are and they say, okay, what's the next step? Not trying to be what somebody, what, not even what somebody wants me to be, but what my perception of what somebody wants me to be. Um, and to me, quirkiness is just having that permission to do things a little off the beat, but there's a lot of conditioning out there. There's that pressure that we impose on ourselves. Mm-Hmm. that I impose on Myselves, find the career by this time. Get married by this time. I'm not married by the way, I'm in a relationship, but I've been a late bloomer with love and also with career in all lanes of my life. I've been a late bloomer, so. A lot of times I think in hindsight, instead of leaning into the quirkiness and just loving myself up for it, for being a little bit different, a lot of times would turn to a place of shame. And when we turn to a place of shame, like I'm not one of them, I'm not good enough. It blocks that creativity. Absolutely. It just, it blocks that, that ability to blossom. You know, I think the word quirkiness is, is fun because it kind of acknowledges the expectations, the norms we have come to observe growing up in the society and acknowledges the fact that there's space to actually do things from within, in an original perspective. I was trying to think of what a good example would be, you know, leaning into this, this differentness. And imagine, and I feel like this has kind of come up in my life. Imagine being in a classroom or being back in high school and maybe feeling like you didn't fit in with the cool kids or you weren't, you know, miss popularity. I know that by the time I was in high school and there were so many different groups, I know sometimes in my life, I would feel a little bit different, like my path was different, but I would at the same time feel the pressure to be a certain way, a certain way that sort of is the more popular norm. But. There might be somebody else that is also a little bit different and just completely owns it, you know, wears the wacky clothes and laughs with themselves, feels comfortable on their own skin, being a little bit, um, I don't know if nerdy or, you know, what I, you know, quirky, it's not nerdy. It's not weird. It's quirky leaning into their quirks. And that person Ends up having a fulfilled life. I would see these people might be a little different, but they're owning their difference. And it makes it easier to figure out what their next step after high school is. It makes it easier to figure out what to major and where to work and even building a relationship because they've accepted themselves and they've, they've decided, okay, this is me and I'm going to be the best version of me that I can be. And that attracts other people. So leaning into that quirkiness for me is really just whatever comes naturally for me. Owning it and not trying to transform it. Oh, I so agree with you. I see you and I hear you and I saw myself for a minute because I have been the same height since 5th grade. And when you're 5'7. 5 in 5th grade, that is thought of as just weird. I made myself as small as humanly possible. I think that one of the things that intimidated me as a kid was when I found somebody just embracing what made them original, what made them stand out. I think I was intimidated out of like envy and wishing I could have the freedom that I saw in them. And it's just such a It's such a beautiful thing to observe somebody now that I know better, who's fully themselves and they might be the loudest person in the room, but if they're being real, you can feel it. If they're being real and they're being fully. Who they are. I admire that. I find that inspiring and that's, that's what I want to do. I want to inspire for authentic. Good. I love it. Yes. You do. Yeah. Well, I had the opposite problem. I was short. I am short. Oh yeah. You know what? My short friends would be saying, you're so lucky. And I'm like, you're so lucky you have pants long enough, you know, perspectives. There's always a different way to see one existence, right? Exactly. And, um, so during my adulthood, um, I have just come to find new things that I love to do and podcasting is not the first of them. And one of them was discovering how we can affirm and validate ourselves and each other through reminiscing in photos and you shared a little bit of a story with me regarding your dad and your uncle really stood out for me. Would you share? I would be happy to. So when my father passed this past June. Uh, we were preparing a memorial service. Thank you. Thank you. It was, um, you know, it was expected because he was sick, but then no matter how prepared you are, just getting pictures together for a slideshow it all was just like, everything was a, was a task. Everything was a chore. When I was organizing photos. I realized that my brother was in one place, you know, he was asking my stepsister about, you know, what photos she had, my uncles across the country. So he can only communicate with me via email. And he's the one that has all of these pictures, family photos that apparently he digitized. So at first he was. Thinking, you know, how am I going to get you these photos? I've got a lot of old photos of dad, photos of the family. Now, mind you, these were taken in the fifties, sixties, probably even some before then they are our family photos going back a few generations. My uncle is very, very resourceful. He took all these photos from, you know, albums and he got them digitized. He was able to get them all to me, but then still remain the question, how am I sending them to you? My mom had some photos that she ended up sending to me and then I saved them to my phone. And so they ended up not in the same folder that my uncle had sent them to me, but basically in the same place. But through this process, Kris, I realized I have photos on one drive so Microsoft photos, I have photos on Google drive and then I have most of my photos on. iCloud iCloud, and there was a period of time where I didn't have an iPhone, so I was leaving the country, I think 2013, 2004. I ended up taking extended time away out of the country, and I didn't have an iPhone for a few years, so there was a, there's a block of time if you go on my iCloud where there are no photos, and those photos are now somewhere else, so I have photos in at least three different places. So no way all of the photos in my life are in iCloud where they probably should be. So it's extremely confusing. You definitely touched on a hot topic for a lot of people. Times like that, when you're just trying to curate those, those memories, um, for an occasion as a tribute and remembrance as part of a healing process, some people will be triggered by the stress of it and others will be, relieved for the distraction of it. I'm not condoning wait and never do anything about things until you have an emergency. But, but I hope you were able to be soothed and connected through rediscovering and sharing some of these memories because obviously you did end up getting a collection of them put together in honor of your dad. I did. I did. Yeah. How was that? Like the reminiscing, were you able to discover anything you didn't know about before in the sharing? Or was it more recollection for you? It was recollection. It was discovering that looking at me and my brother as Baby pictures. It's kind of, it was kind of hard sometimes to decide to discover which was me, which was my brother, it was a reminder of the love, um, that my, father and mother when we were very young. And then even before we were born, just the family gatherings, the, there was kind of a traditional way that they led their life. And my father ended up going from being kind of a traditional person to going through a whole transformation. I don't want to say midlife crisis. I'm 10 years old and my father's like, Yeah. Yeah. I have childhood trauma that I never thought I, I had. And of course this is in the early nineties. So, you know, figure he grew up in the fifties and sixties, not in an era of go to therapy and talk about your feelings with your parents. So he became less socializing with the other people we would go to family gatherings, but it wasn't quite as potent as it was when I was very, very little and before I was born, he didn't do as much with the temple. He kind of became a little bit more of a new ager and less of a what a traditional person looked like in the early nineties. So, or late eighties, early nineties. So it was a reminder of, Oh yeah, my father was just kind of like a normal traditional family man once upon a time before I was born. And then when I was very little and I, I saw lots of pictures of cousins and extended family. That we were closer to when I was young. It becomes heritage and it does become something worthwhile to hold on to. There were some people from that side of the family, the younger people who are still alive, but also still kind of young that wanted to. Have us stream the memorial service. So I, let me back up. We did stream it. we did go live on Facebook. So that was, that was really nice. Oh, wow. That's something that before a pandemic, we probably wouldn't have thought to do. Wouldn't you say? I know, right? There's really something to be said for knowing where you come from and just being connected through storytelling and genealogy and pictures to our grands, our great grands, our great greats. I like to look at those pictures as a chance to heal when you need to, measure back to see how far you've come, and also just say, you know, I'm a piece of a legacy. You know, you're a piece of your dad's legacy and you saw him go through some big changes in his life and you have just at the beginning of this conversation went on to how you're embracing change and quirkiness and being willing to accept that normal is not really the desired outcome. It's really, it's a creative space where we see growth and, and I think photos are a valuable tool that help us measure some of that. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So kudos to your uncle for taking strides to digitize. Was this his brother? This is your dad's brother. Yes, who stepped up and did all the digitizing. That's fantastic. Did you find yourself maybe wanting to let go of some extras? While actually looking at the photos that you do have sure people, there were some photos that were clearly people in the family that I couldn't even name. I mean, I mean, I mean, extended people. So we didn't choose. Every photo. Um, but it was really more the process of me looking through them myself, because when we did the service, then we sort of had some food and sitting down and talking, and then we were like, Oh yeah, we have a slideshow as well. It was more the, you know, the experience that I had in my own personal space of looking through them. I am very grateful to my uncle for getting this for putting it together. And I think these days, like The version of this, that's going to take place 20 years from now, who knows what that's going to look like? Because everyone has digital photos and my phone will show me a memory and it'll organize memories for you. And that can be really beautiful and also really triggering. Yeah. When it says, remember this memory 10 years ago that's another reason to clear out stuff that doesn't really support you anymore, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking of, um, it was a year ago and we needed photos for the insurance company when my kids were in a car accident, but I'm like, okay, you know what? That came and went. I don't need that backed up in my cloud that's not part of my family legacy. Thank God they walked away from it. They're just some things that, photos can be practical tools, but then they don't have to stay as part of our legacies. Exactly. Let, letting them go is important. Just like letting stuff go. So Rebecca, what's next for you? Well, building this podcast and, um, it's an interesting question because I just let a full time job go. So that's a whole other story for another day. Uh, but this was a job, you know, talking about you know, belonging. This was a job that I needed at the time. It gave me this huge sense of belonging. It accepted my quirkiness in, in the sense that I worked with wonderful people and it wasn't a stuffy environment. I got to work remotely, but the actual job itself, it was, it was a, a stop on, on the ship. I probably would not have left it at the time that I did if it wasn't for the circumstances that brought to that, but I'm grateful because it's not always why we get somewhere, but just that we get somewhere So with this new podcast, it's all kind of coming together. I don't know what my professional life will look like six months from now or 12 months from now I have support. Me having a job is not needed in my family at this very, very moment. But it is both exhilarating and crazy kind of landing. I'm still kind of landing in this. What will I be? But what I'm finding is stop asking the question, stop asking the question, well, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? Because that's, that's forcing something that's forcing something in a way better to just let, let the answers come. It's better to, to do what. Is in front of us right now and just let the answers in front of what's in front of me right now is I'm just enjoying these amazing conversations. There's so many people out there doing interesting things. So showcasing other people's value and also offering value is going to lead to where it needs to lead to. If I'm still in this space three months from now and I need to get a job, well, I'll worry about it then. Right. Right. So what are your hopes for bloom with a boom? Even if it changes name, even if it changes tone, what are your wishes for the audience of Bloom with a boom? Well, it's my, my wish that my audience feels seen and nurtured, that it does something for their psyche. So even if they're not listening to the entire episode, it raises their vibration and makes them feel good to listen to that conversation. That is my goal. And also that it's helpful that the people that come on the show, that the, the solo episodes that I'm putting out is offering something educational. I've got so many tools that I use in my daily life that I think help kind of clean our thoughts and clean our energy and raise our vibration and do all of those wonderful things, meditation, chanting, which is a form of prayer and meditation. I have tools to teach people and to share, or even just to tell people about, and those tools. Can help us get unstuck. So if we're not sure what the next step is, a lot of times that uncertainty or that, 'what am I going to do? I know that I'm doing something and it's not where I'm supposed to be that, that pressure, that insecurity, that sticky, icky feeling. I know for me, it blocks. I could have the best idea, but it'll never come up because I'm in that space. So I think the most important thing is using these tools as a vehicle to kind of get that clarity first, get that beautiful foundation for our day. Like I just did one of Kathy Heller's meditations this morning. I did it yesterday morning and I just felt this. It just gave me that feeling of peace. Like it's okay to be here. And with those tools, with those tools, we can now be in a space. To discover what we're meant to discover. So sometimes it's not so important to get somebody on the podcast. That's going to say, I did this and I subscribed to this and I took this class and you can do this. Like the learning tangible things, learning the outward things is helpful. If we don't know what those outward things are, if we're overwhelmed, if we're stuck, If we don't know what the first step is going to be sometimes focusing on the inner tools, that can build our inner spirit or inner life, our energy. By going to the tools, back to those basics, the rest has a way of falling into place. That's so true. That's so true. You know, something came to my mind, just reflecting on this conversation and once we've had prior everybody wants to feel part of something bigger than themselves. And Rebecca, I feel like your podcast and the space that you are creating for people to come in, they can really feel like they're part of an authentic, safe place. And a place where it's safe to explore what else is in your legacy. And I'm all about building legacies. When I use that term, I think more of curating evidence of our legacies, because I love so much to work with photo and video. But, our legacy is so much bigger than a photo, so much bigger than a gift or a trade, and when people step in and have conversations with us, they become part of our legacy as well. So, I can't thank you enough for letting me have this conversation with you. Thank you so much. It was wonderful to talk with you. I appreciate you so much. And, uh, let's just keep picturing love everywhere we go. Deal? Deal. I hope that whether you are thinking about curating your own family history in photos, Whether you're thinking about how you've handled change in your life and how you're going to change. In the future. Or whether you're being reminded to use some of the tools that maybe are sitting in your toolbox, forgotten and waiting to serve you, whatever your takeaway today is. I hope it just helps you show up and picture love better. In your days and be sure to check the show notes for some takeaway questions to help you reflect. And to get a link to bloom with the boom podcast, take care, and we'll see you next time.