First private coaching episode

0:38

Welcome back to picture love my friend. If you've never been here before, my name is Kris LeDonne and I make beautiful things with my clients photos. Part of that is having them organized, digitized, and streamlined into ways that they can actually Find the memories they're looking for. And so some of that leads to the private client work I do with those who want to learn how to do it themselves, want some accountability, want some coaching, and they want the relationship and the experience of really getting command of their photos. So I'm going to be releasing from time to time an inside coaching session you get to hear me working with a client. You'll hear some of their inspiring stories and you'll hear how I'm helping them make decisions that get them to the Goal they have in mind. There is no one size fits all when it comes to our photos and you get to determine what is the value of each of yours. This is what it's like to get a little bit of professional guidance while navigating some of that.

A favorite photo memory of Stephanie's

What aspect of Stephanie's photos needs some help?

Kris LeDonne 1:48

Oh, Stephanie, thank you for visiting me here on picture love. Welcome. Thank you so much, Kris. This is quite an honor. Tell me a little bit about yourself. So I'm a, I'm a Florida native. And my family history is pretty interesting. We have a long line, a very strong Entrepreneurial women. So you know, I myself have done a few things before my current career. I, I used to do a personal assisting and project management and marketing and then massage therapy, and now I'm an osteopathic physician. So I've done quite a few things, worn a few hats, and I hope this is my last career, but there are other things. In the works, but really quick for somebody who doesn't know what's an osteopathic physician. So there are two types of licensed physicians in the United States and the traditional medical doctor, the MD is kind of what everyone thinks of. There is a, an alternative pathway here in the United States called D O or doctor of osteopathy. And so The two programs run similarly in their academic and in their clinical training, the DOs get an extra 7 to 800 hours of musculoskeletal specific training content. And so we use our hands a lot for soft tissue manipulation, musculoskeletal alignment and adjustments and things like that. So we tend to be a little bit more, systems based, a little bit more holistic focused. So most of the DOs will go into some form of primary care, but they can also specialize in surgeries or cardiology or pediatrics, you know, any of those subspecialties that are available to MDs, DOs can also have additional fellowship training in. So concurrently, there are two physicians in the United States, DOs and MDs. I've just learned something new. Thank you so much for explaining it in terms that I can understand. Because I think holistic health is something that is getting a little bit more attention now, thankfully. So yay you, and let's bring others up with you because we need you. Healing hands. Yeah, that's, you know, I'm, everyone is, is really sort of, I think, waking up to this, you know, use your gifts and talents mentality. And I have always used my hands for things and touch is so important. And so trying to bring back that humanistic side of medicine, that real kind of intimate connection. Right. You know, the, the ultimate physical exam, so to speak, right? Oh, wow. That's fascinating. And today we came together because you were so generous to volunteer your time and some concerns. So what we could do a little bit of a deep dive On the topic of your pictures. But before we get in there, would you share a little bit about a favorite picture of yours? Sure, sure. So there is one particular picture. And it sort of captures my personality and our, our current living matriarch's personality. I'm wearing these bright red sort of Chinese pajamas, the silk pajamas with the little orange frog buttons. And, you know, and it was a gift from my grandmother. She had gone traveling and so she had brought back this And I absolutely just adored those pajamas. There's an element of performance in, in our relationship, like her personality and my personality. And so you know, we're kind of kindred spirits in that way. So in this picture, you can kind of see, you know, my confidence and, you know, her, her adoration and just how sweet and tender she could be. But also. You know, the color red and the, the essence of fire and energy. And that really too is part of her personality and my personality. Just, just being very fierce, very, very bright. And I love that picture so much because it, it just without a lot of eye contact in that picture, I'm the only one looking at the camera, but you know, you see, she's just she's just so such a big presence. Such a big personality, but in that one moment, we kind of shared that spotlight in the picture. As somebody who grew up with both sets of grandparents, I feel very blessed. And it's a very sacred relationship between a grandparent and grandchild. And I'm so grateful to you for sharing that. That's just absolutely gorgeous. So, so tell me about the state of your photos, like, you know, the role they play. And of course, what's at the top of your mind, but I would love a big picture. So don't, don't be afraid to list a few things. Sure. It's probably going to be a bit more narrative and story like, direct me if I'm going the wrong direction. No, there's no wrong direction. It's what's on your mind so my, my grandmother is still alive. She's 103 years old. And you know, she, like I said, she's a big personality and so she's always kind of been this, starlight personality, this, manager and, and showstopper, she's been an entrepreneur, a bar manager. She's been a photographer herself. She's been a dance instructor you know, just so many things in her life and. She has newspaper articles and TV stories about her. I mean, she's like a local celebrity where she lives in Port Charlotte. So I, because of her vision deficit, she developed macular degeneration, you know, and she's 103, so she can't really see anymore. And she just decided she would keep a handful of photos that she was going to put on her wall. But that she just going to get rid of everything. Cause who wants all these pictures? It's this compendium of her whole life story from the 1920s until, you know, as, as recent as. March. So, you know I have boxes and boxes of pictures and some of them are the old black and white tin type. Some of them are the, you know, the black and white ones with the scalloped edges when they used to do like lovely frilly, you know, prints. I have some that are in these, like paper protected packets, right? So it's, it's sort of a folio kind of fan that opens. Yeah, folio. Yeah. You know, I have big pictures that are 11 by 14 and I have tiny pictures that are like one by one. You know, it's amazing how small they printed them at one time. It's just and you know, there are some where I'm not real sure who the people are, but these were people that were in our lives. And you know, she has a pretty, interesting story and I think her story needs to be preserved and told for a variety of reasons. And she found out at a very early age that she was adopted. And so that really fractured her sense of self and sense of self is kind of a hot topic lately, so to speak, so she became a very strong, independent person, probably hyper independent and she ran away from home because she made her own life. She made her own way. She decided to change her name and chose her own name. And so her whole life, she has blazed the trail and then paved the path. You know, moving often you know, building homes from scratch and, you know, starting businesses from scratch and just really, you know, living life to the fullest and sometimes that means her family members didn't get as much attention or had to move a lot, didn't set down roots. So I think. Her life choices as anybody's choices have, have affected the family, right? The family dynamic sometimes too. So preserving the pictures is healing in some way. You know, for her, For her while she's still living to know that we're, we're preserving her memory and her legacy. But also as time goes on and the people in my family work through what they need to work through and I need to work through what I need to work through. It will be nice to have those pictures to refer back to. Right. I mean, it's treasure trove of moments over century. Yes. Wow. That's amazing to say that she lived. Is still living at 103 and is still living her vivacious personality, whether the vision is what it was or not. It's just, that's so amazing. And the way you describe her story, she sounds like many people. I could see a book, a very, very Successful book telling her story and I could see volumes because of the perspectives of her loved ones, you know, there's always more than one side of a story and sometimes when you're living through what appears painful behaviors of a loved one and you're missing Their version of the story you're, you're left to deal with pain without any explanation or context. And so I think that storytelling has been very healing as you use that word, that is the best word I have for creating awareness and connection to experiences that maybe you did not. Live through with your loved one, but you were affected by and so that's a really beautiful thing. And also your grandmother will find healing by seeing her granddaughter, honoring her stories and delivering them back to her. And so. Whether she can actually see them fully or not being able to hold an album might be a very, very meaningful thing. And if her words are compiled with the pictures that you are fortunate to possess. That would be certainly kind of reminiscing at a whole new level, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Yeah. So if you could just give me a visual, what does it look like? You said boxes. Are they like, are we talking like a room full of boxes? Are we talking maybe some sweater bins? What are we talking about? You know, picture a very large. Farm dining room table, like, okay, you know, 7 seat or big boxes cover the entire surface of this farm table. They're various shapes. You know, some are small boxes. Some of them are just, you know, grocery bag type things. Some of them are like in a accordion file, when she moved from her home, she thought she had got all of the pictures and had moved them with her to her new location. But then the realtors and the new buyers found stacks of pictures, so they weren't really packaged and provided to me in any, you know, organized fashion. I have to sit and sort through them all and figure out which ones are sort of worthy of keeping and, and how many duplicates we have of certain things. And then who, besides yourself and your grandmother, would appreciate having these stories accessible. So she still has living children. She has two sons. One is in the northern part of California. One is in the southern part of California. And my mother is here in Florida with me. And I have cousins and she has, I don't know how many grandkids. Lots, and great grandkids. So, you know, there, there are still stories to be told. And people might not even be that curious yet. You know, in working in the medical field, I, I know what happens to families after people pass, and they might not know how soothing and comforting having these, images is going to be upon her passing. So yeah. And I want to make sure that, you know, they all have equal access to these. Because some of them, you know, are of extended family members or you know, their own children when they were young and all those things. So instead of, you know, sorting out all of these pictures of my uncle and sending them to him and all of these pictures of my mom and sending them to her. I really want to keep them together. I think that's a beautiful idea. And that's one of the beautiful things that digital allows us to do. It allows us to not only capture and preserve, but share and duplicate. And so when you do have loved ones that span a country or the globe digital has allow us beautiful ways of sharing and connecting. And meanwhile, if we can get your. Hypothetical farm table clear things that you're not worried about natural disasters threatening or, you know, a coffee spill happening, then that will add extra peace of mind to the process. So what does it look like if you waved your magic wand and it's done, what, what would be the ideal deliverable? I wasn't sure if you were resonating with the idea of an album in the lap of your grandmother's hand, or what is, what is that magical understanding that everybody can have access to it? What does that look like? I think lately we're all in this, like, digital picture age where we don't even print stuff out anymore. Like, we just upload it to a server and they live there. Until you go and want to find something, right? You're just going to keep taking pictures and moving forward, but I don't know how many people actually go back and look at their old digital photos. Having something in print would be lovely, right? Because it's there, it's accessible. It could be, you know, something that we keep on the mantle or something that we keep on the coffee table or something that we, you know, put with, with a refrigerator arch from ages ago. You know, and you mentioned just like writing her story and then having some, you know, sort of a sequel of books, maybe from everyone's individual perspective to, to tell, tell the story from different viewpoints, right? I think that would be very interesting. You know, another thing I've seen people do is, well, I've done for clients actually, is printed a digital book in multiple copies. With minimal text on them, but spaces where they could go back with an archival style pen and actually write in their own reflections on their own copies. Just the same way you would, you know, a visitor's book at a party, you know, and, you know, I don't know how, if you've ever, you know, kind of. Dived into this, but as I'm, as I treat patients and as I, I see them and, and I, I work with a lot of grief, right? So there's a, there's a very psychosomatic connection to storing grief in the body and I'm trying to help people through some of their great significant losses. And I think a book like that would really be a good medium to have in a grief workshop or grief series or grief seminar, right? I think we have a collaboration brewing. Yeah, I think this is going to happen. I think this needs to happen because I got to tell you 80 percent of my work is emotional and 20 percent of it is tack tactile and tactics. For sure. Yeah, honestly, and frequently I'll be contacted by somebody who wants to do something and then they never do. And it's because of the emotional tripping points on the flip side of that. I had a client who has since moved from New Jersey down to Texas, but she we, we digitized. She went through, we did the thing, we got messy, dusty, did the scanning, and maybe down the road she said on the books, but right now she just wanted things duplicated so that she could move and not lose things, because downsizing is somebody I serve a lot. Okay. Unfortunately, a year after moving to Texas, she did lose her brother unexpectedly and she told me and I literally cried. She said, Kris, it was so comforting. I knew exactly. Yeah. Absolutely. Where the pictures were of my brother and it was so comforting to have access to them and not feel like I'm grieving and I'm dealing with a mountain of memories that I can't fish through in my emotional state of grief and shock. And all of the initial terrible things. So that was such a testimony to another reason why we do things while people are alive, we can enjoy them. We can save with them. We can storytell with them while they're still here. And, you know, if, if we need to do it after they've passed, then that's, that's just how things unfolded. That's fine. Well, so talking about like doing it while people are alive. And, and while they're able, I would add because my father's mother, she's since passed, but she developed Parkinson's disease. She was such a great storyteller. She was like the, the yin to the yang for, for my other grandmother. Like she was more soothing. She was more nurturing. She was more into Disney and magic and, you know, just like the playful things and Winnie the Pooh and all of my stuffed animals. So where I had like one grandmother is this like literally sparkling diamond. This one over here was like that comforting security blanket for me. So. But I had given her a memory book and it was like props that she could respond to and write, but the Parkinson's had stolen a lot of her dexterity so she couldn't write anything. So when she passed and we went to her apartment and the book was empty, I can tell you the grief that I went through for that, because I was really hoping to have Some of her words captured but I missed that opportunity. So, you know, just encouraging people in general to do it now. It might be uncomfortable. It might be unsavory. It might, you know, drum up a lot of things, but do it now. And you know what? Nowadays we have technologies that make dictation so much easier. You literally have a computer in your pocket, the cell phone, and to just even put it in dictate mode and let them speak into a Google doc or a voice note. It's just, it's so nice. You can just say, Hey, Who is this in this picture? Tell me about it. Or, you know, what's What's your favorite childhood memory or what was it like growing up with dad or, you know, or if you're adopted, you have even more questions, right? So I think there's definitely joy in reminiscing over stories and if they can't be written in hand, we are so blessed to have other ways of recording these things too. So, Stephanie, I've worked with folks who want to do it all themselves and they just want some coaching and they just want some accountability and some structure just, you know, to, to keep alongside. And then I have, I've worked with clients who just like, no, let me tell you who the people are and you do the work. And then there's been things in between. So. I'm going to give you a few of the tips that I give people who want to do to themselves. Just so you can have this filter when you're thinking about. Actually taking steps forward and you could think of it as the three L's because when we take pictures or, you know, news articles or gather memorabilia like that, there are things that have limited value, you know, there's things like in our camera rolls on our cell phones that we take pictures. So we remember where we parked, you know, and or like, I had 6 photos of the palm of my hand, not knowing my camera was not. Turned off and it was in my pocket, you know, so those things have a limited value or when we go trigger happy and we're just taking photos in the moment because the joy was in the taking of the picture. It wasn't necessarily that we kept the picture because there's a an emotional response when we intentionally take a picture like the end of a college tour and my daughter actually enjoyed herself and a dolphin swims up and it's like the scene in a Disney movie. I'm like. Are you kidding me? And the sun comes through the palm trees so I started snapping pictures of the dolphin because it was my human response-, this was such a great moment, right? Do I need all the pictures of the, the water reflecting in the canal and the piece of a dorsal fin? No, they had limited value and it brought me joy in trying to capture that moment. Right. But that's not a lasting value. So that's what the first L is limited. If you're looking for a trusted service that can transform tons of printed and digital pictures into something that's space conscious, beautiful, and displayed on your walls or in a legacy album on your lap, then look no further. Reminiscence by Kris LeDonne is here to serve you and your loved ones. Now you can continue to make and capture beautiful photo memories, enjoy sharing them with ease, and make new memories in the process of reminiscing You can find inspiration and a contact form at krisledonne.com or just check the show notes for a link. Now back to the show. The second L, look at you taking notes. All right. I'll share my notes with you too. Think of long term or longer term. That's a very relative term and notice I'm not really being very, very specific on these labels. But limited would be, you know, maybe you need it for a short period of time. Longer term could mean your lifetime, your lifespan, but it really doesn't have any value to other people. It's just something useful to you. Like a photo that helps you meditate, you know a vision board, something that's like a compilation of things that are very specific to you that. Honestly, you might not even explain to another person because they're not something you think of long term as a legacy item. It's very different for some families, but for example, there in the like seventies and eighties, maybe even nineties, it was kind of popular to have a kid write, draw a marker picture and it got imprinted on a, on a melamine plate. You know, and it was like, you know, the kid was proud of their artwork or something like that. And it'll blow up your microwave and you can't bake it. And you know what I'm saying? And it fades in time. And so while it kind of has a limited to somewhat long term, a period of value, but then if it's really an important picture, taking a picture of it. And then letting go of the actual article. Right. Well, that was my other thing, you know, like, you know, there are some, you know, physical items that, that I have found great joy in, you know, obviously emotional connection to people that have passed or I have lost and, but it's like, I'm 47 years old. I don't need to be carrying around a Winnie the Pooh piggy bank. Like, I just don't, right. But there's still such an emotional connection to it. And just, you know, Preserving the memory of it, because in the day to day I forget it, but then every now and then I see it and I'm like, Oh, you know, it brings back all those good, feel good memories. So just, you know, trying, especially preserving childhood memories, moving through adulthood and trying to, you know, set yourself free from stuff. Yeah. If you really are trying to eliminate the stuff, then it's A photo of that in your album, where you get to actually write something- you know, write what's so special about it, honors your inner child. Yes. You know, and maybe even gifting it to somebody who really, really will love it. Right. Passing it on. Passing it on to a family who, you know, they're big Disney family, you know, and their first born child or, or, you know, or the third, you know, by the third, they get all the hand me downs. Well, here's something that's new to your family. That's got a whole lot of love in it already that. That, for example, could be one way that we let things go. But if you have the space, there is no shame in, in collecting them or repurposing them. The client with the brother that I mentioned before she inherited a lot of her mother's and grandmother's costume jewelry and she didn't want to donate it. She broke it all up and made a picture frame out of it. Oh, that's great. Gorgeous. Yeah. It's gorgeous. So there are ways that you can repurpose something if it really is sentimental to make it something new and still give you the joy of keeping it, but just not necessarily in a cluttery fashion. So that jewelry, you know, you can debate over that if that's longterm or if that's more of legacy item, that's the last L. You know, so you're coming at this with fortunately your grandmother available to ask questions and to talk about these things. And she can curate what are the legacy moments, what are the things that she really cares about making sure that people can appreciate, learn from, be inspired by, what she most proud of. What she's most proud of is really, really probably an important place to start. While you have her making decisions with you but then down the road when we're talking about legacy items and we have lost a loved one, it's up to the survivors to decide what, what really is their legacy. It's not that they had clean floors, you know, you might storytell about the grandmother who had the white carpet in her kitchen and never had a stain on it when she made all the years of tomato sauce. That's a story I've heard but you, you just never know. So it's the storytellers decision to make. And right now you get to hear from the source. And I would just start with what she thinks are the first, most important things. And then maybe ask for input. If you'd like, what are your most important things that you care, you want to learn about and, you know, maybe come up with a little list of some of the topics. And, and you won't know necessarily all the topics until you've had a chance to kind of thumb through All of the goodies. But here's another thing. Throwing away a picture is not throwing away human. It's not. It's allowing you to focus on the legacy items and some of the long term items, understanding that the things with the limited value are going to be the redundancies. Like, you know, those portrait, those black and white portraits that are getting so faded now because of the decades when they were taken they've literally had 20 proofs in some, some circumstances, right. And, you know, I'd say the one where you could see the strongest family resemblance. You know, and maybe a crying baby because crying babies are so cute, too. You know what I mean? Not everything has to be proper and dignified, you know, well, and some of those pictures are so stoic because for so long, right? They're just like, yeah, it's like, okay, in that picture, but it's history, but it's history. Yes. But you don't have to have every single shadow variation. I get it. Well, my grandmother, so she, she built a few homes and in, in some of these envelopes that I have discovered, there are multiple duplicates of the process from breaking ground to the two by fours. And then, you know, the, the. The whole structure and then the drywall and then, you know, the exterior and then the roof. And so, I mean, I have little pictures of just like the process of home building and, you know, in my mind, I'd like to take a beginning, a middle photo and the end photo and just be like, you know. her, her legacy is, truly, one of ambition and, and this like showmanship, this, this star personality where she just loves the limelight and loves to be the center of attention. And, you know, she's always dressed to the nines, like some of her gowns and some of those things she wears to go out are incredible. I mean, sequins from head to toe, right? Some of it. Someone even that like pink camouflage with sequins. So she just lights up the room and, people just dig that. They love that energy. And so, you know, pictures of the footprint of her, one of her homes might not mean a lot to people, but it is definitely still a testament to her tenacity and, you know, just the going after what she wants. That's a very journalistic photo. You know, after what you've shared about her and what that represents, there can be symbolism and meaning in a footprint and seeing the land before the building started. And then when it's ready to be somebody's home or, you know, or somebody's place of business those are stories that you could probably capture on one page in an album, and give her the benefit of, you know, satisfying progression. And so those are things that, that you can allow yourself. It sounds like you have a really good intention there. Do you need help with the tactiles? Are you thinking this might be something you're going to. Call in some help from family or is this something that you're going to take on yourself? Have you gotten that far? You know, I have given away a handful, an envelope full. So you've been in it a little bit. Yeah, I've been in it. I think my mom would be the one to sit with me and go through some of the pictures. I think more than anything, the healing element will, will be most purposeful for her. I'm not sure. Do you know, and maybe this is where you guide. People like me, you know, do you do the chronology or do you do it by, you know, chapters by subjects? Like, this, this is when she lived in California. This is when she lived in Virginia. This is when she lived in Florida. This is when she lived in Arizona. This, you know, or is it, you know, by by adventure, like, oh, this is when she was a photographer and this is when she owned the bait shop. And this is when she managed the bar. You know, I don't, there's so many different, I mean, she's 103 years old. There's lots going on in her life. So I don't want to do it all on my own. So the answer to your question is yes. That's fair. You know, because there is no one right or wrong way to do this. I usually guide my clients based on their familiarity based on their comfort level. But I am not at all married to a chronology. I think as time fades, the exact date of, of a historical event is one thing, but the exact date of breaking ground and listing the house as time passes might be less important and just grouping it into an era. I love grouping things by topic when I have a lot of traveling clients. And they repeat their trips and they've been to Egypt three times. I suggest, well, what if you had an overview of all of your Egypt trips and chose your favorite, you know, you could make a chronology within that subject. So I love that. I have clients who say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Everything has to be in order. And. If they have everything dated, that's great. But if they don't have those dates, that's usually the person who doesn't become a customer because they just get fixated on unresolvable circumstances. So, the question is, you know, are you going to allow yourself to break out of your chronology mindset to actually have this move forward. And then if you gather more information down the road, we can create more of a chronology or just make it generally visually looking like it's moving through the years. I know my life lands kind of in, in. I've got New York cause I grew up in New York and I left home at 17 for college and I didn't go back. I've got my North Carolina days, which were college and my first teaching job and meeting my now husband and and that kind of bleeds into before kids and that's what my young adult years and now everything is since the beginning of parenthood and I'm approaching empty nest. And I believe when we move at the end of this year, and technically we're empty nesters, that will be the next era. So that'll be like the fourth era. When I look at my 50 plus years of life so far, if that helps you lump things together and then there's nothing wrong with one off things on, like you can make a category of reunions. Where it's going to involve more people captured in photos, and it's not, there's nothing wrong with lumping it together and making it collage yearbook style where sometimes those collage yearbooks don't have a chronology. They're just all put in there together because it's a shared energy. That makes sense. You know, and there's nothing wrong with an occasional in an album, whereas Waldo scenario where you just, you know, you've got these groups and people can look for their faces in the shared album. That's okay. You know, in some ways, that's probably, you know, a little bit more interactive too, because it's not just like, they're going to go to pages 4 through 8 and that's where my section is exactly really kind of mixing it up and, and taking them through the journey. Exactly. And so if those things were on my dining table right now, I would feel urgency to do something about it, or at least to feel like I've got something in motion. Do you have a vision in your mind of what your first steps might be? Are you looking for some ideas? Oh, I am open to ideas. Okay. I mean the first, so I tried to go through like a box or two to pull some things out for my cousin because I don't see him often. So I knew I was going to be seeing him. So I pulled stuff out. Right. I mean, there's tons and tons and tons. And it was just, it really, honestly was, it's crazy. A few hours worth of sifting through to see what was there. And then, you know, there's boxes I haven't even opened to look at yet. So I'm open. Okay. So I love the idea of putting things away once. I love sticky notes or post its, whatever you call them. I love them because I never want to make a pile that's not labeled. And then if I get interrupted, I can come back to that pile and I know what it is. And I'm not going to think that's the unsorted pile. Okay. So when you're doing something like this, think about it as putting things away once. And. When it comes to scanning, I really love when a client's kind of either let me with their help or they have gone through everything before batching them because just like your grandmother's things that you thought you had them and then there were more found later on. It's so empowering when you know you have everything for a subject all together at once before starting a project. You can always scan them at any order. And organize them then, but if you're already organizing them tangibly, it just makes good sense to do that before they're made digital. And then just to have them scanned in clumps you can take photographs of things that are too big to scan or too bulky or 3 dimensional. You can ask for help doing that. You can also ask for accountability. And I'm working on a membership where we will actually have a virtual sessions where we're all co working on our pictures and getting a project together. Yes. So there'll be ways where you are hands on with your memories, with support and some systems. Right. You really don't know what you need and what your questions are until you're, you know, six inches deep in it. Yeah. Like, Oh my God, what do I do with this? Oh, another thing I love is using a timer. Because just like you and I, we have this limited hour before you're, you're in appointments. And I am too scheduling time with yourself when you're going to do that so that you're not feeling guilty or distracted by what's not done. It has its place. So it's not taking up mental clutter. So step one would be putting them all in one physical place to assess what you're going to work on and set a scheduled time. You know, it could be once a week. It could be you want to block out a Saturday and just do it in chunks. That's fine. But set a timer. So you take stretch breaks because we only have one back and you know all about that. You know all about that. And, and then just saying, you know, I'm just going to focus on box number one today and set up some categories. And if you'd like some resources, I do have a product to absolutely love. It is so affordable and it's a sort box that you can keep long term. It'll keep you organizing and not having to refile what you've already filed. So I can definitely send you a link for that as if that's helpful. But you don't have to keep them tangibly. They can be made all digital, and then you are just printing the books if you want to. But there's nothing wrong with a little bit of both. You know, get them digital, get them backed up and you can, there's nothing wrong with keeping a box to leaf through because quite honestly, I've seen and heard many stories about clients whose kids just love to, you know, or they're home for the holidays and they just want to, you know, rifle through and pull out some more and do take some fun pictures and reminisce. And if they have a book, you know, that'll just make the distance even shorter between that, but don't feel like you have to throw things away, especially those tin prints. If they are pleasing you and you love them, then great, keep them, but they should be scanned so that they can be duplicated and shared. Right. And I think it, you know, the, the sense of loss is lessened if something should get damaged or, you know, if someone feels like they absolutely must have that. prints, then they can have it, you know, like, I think that's my concern is just making sure to preserve that, you know, historical document and then sort of relieve myself of any responsibility to be stewards of that. Yes. They're paper. They're, they're starting to degrade. Some of them are fading some, you know, the dampness. And they're smashed together, some of them and, you know, just in general, trying to, to make sure that, that I can keep the ones that bring me joy and then, you know, the preserve the rest of them and something that's sustainable. All right. So a couple little tips between now and when you're deciding, am I ready to start making some decisions? Make sure they are dry. Make sure they are protected from spills or leaky roofs. I love using rubber made bins, but I also love a product called damp rid. In Florida, you're going to get to learn a lot about Damp Rid so just making sure that they are out, that they're protected from puddles, drips, climate and extreme temperatures. So, in the meantime, label them, make sure that the boxes have labels so nobody else is going to move them and put them somewhere where they don't belong and they won't be misplaced. Somebody well meaning. Those are, those are the first most important things that I would share with you. And just, just think of photos as a pet. You know, would you leave your pet outside in a storm? Would you leave your pet in a garage with standing water? You know, would you leave your pet in the attic? Well, Florida doesn't have a lot of attics and basements, but, but you know what I'm saying? You want a more climate controlled circumstance in the meantime. Yeah, I, I would love so much to help you File through this. I will send you the resources. I will send you the tips that I was referring to. And what are your thoughts about taking a next step? I'm, I think mostly trying to either arrange them by life event. Or chunk it, like you say, like maybe by, by era. But you know, I think first and foremost, I want to, I don't know how many times I want to go through them, but there are definitely multiple duplicates in different boxes. And so the task becomes how many of these do I already have? So I don't know that necessarily I want to do it alone. I think I need to call in a family member or some, some help. From the expert here, happy to really sit down and go through it all because even the small bit that I tried to go through for me was overwhelming. So 1st and foremost, you know, recruit some help. Yes, and I think trying to figure out. What I think is going to be the best way to organize. I mean, a strategy initially would be nice. And from what I've learned from you on this call and before you're very intuitive as far as you can actually let the memorabilia guide you. As you're just, just make sure you have a clear space and make sure that in between sort sessions, that things are labeled and put back securely but you might find that you have a whole heck of a lot of pictures of chickens and nobody in your family's raising chickens and just like there goes a whole clump. You know, or things that friends gave or somebody gave your grandmother and you thought belonged to her when they don't. Right. Like how many, how many pictures of my grandfather with fish do I really want to keep? Right. Yeah. Yeah. And now letting your calendar talk to you, let it give you reminders for the times that you set to do it with yourself and you decide, am I good with, you know, a chunk? Or am I better with just small little bits, you know, regularly, but I love to put it on a calendar that sends me reminders because then I don't have to worry about it getting done. It's going to get done. And the added follow up is if you would like some accountability, that is one of the perks of working with me ongoing. I welcome questions that pop up. But definitely reach back if you want to, you know, get a concrete plan in place. And in the meantime, I hope that that filter of the L's at least helps you kind of. Yeah, absolutely. I need some momentum. It's like I said, it's an overwhelming process and you know, maybe it's my own sense of ownership and responsibility that is lending a little bit to that, but I want it to be a fun discovery process. And I think, you know, picking out some of those legacy items and going back to her and sitting with her and being, you know, tell me the story about this one or, you know, cause her, her memory is starting to fade a bit. And so I think there is some sense of urgency to capture that. Yes. But yeah, so I've got a, I've got a couple of week trip. Ironically to Egypt, now that you mentioned it, I definitely want to try to sit down and figure out, you know, how we can collaborate because I feel like there's so many more magical things to come. Absolutely. Absolutely. And don't be afraid of doing something messy. If you get an, if you find an hour and you have an impulse, just leave it labeled. And you come back, that's putting your pin in it and don't, don't feel like you have to be finished before you start asking the question. Gotcha. Thank you so much, Kris. This has been wonderful. Stephanie, you were so generous with your heart and your stories. And oh my gosh, I can't wait to learn more about your family. This is amazing. That's amazing. You could be publishing a book one day. Oh, that sounds phenomenal, actually, like when you mentioned it, I was like, holy cow, I could. Yes. I could write her story and could write theirs and it would be great. And they could be making movies from this book, you know. She is, she is a superstar. It's amazing. Thank you for being here. Thank you.