241. Preserve Your Family Legacy through Photos, Memories, and Stories With Haleh Shoa

Photos are the gateways to our stories. They are the gateway to learning more about our ancestors and where we come from – even if you have a broken family or past; photos can help you heal and understand your stories from a different perspective. Haleh Shoa is the Founder and CEO of Picturli, a photo organization, curation, archiving, and design studio that helps families, individuals, and businesses transform their photo mess into one sortable digital library.  Haleh firmly believes that our family histories and personal memories are some of the most valuable treasures we can have and that preserving and sharing them is essential for future generations. Today's episode is going to inspire you to listen to the nudges and look at what makes you happy, because you really can start a business based on anything. Haleh was working as the Director of Operations for Jaguar/Land Rover and was flying around the globe. She loved it. But it made her wonder if she could do it for herself. She started working with a life coach, who asked her what she loved doing the most. They dug deep, and Haleh realized she loved photo books and creating gallery wall art. Haleh started her business in 2016 and was questioning herself – was she doing the right thing?  Her passion for photo organizing stems from her family’s history of being uprooted by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. While they were unable to bring most of their belongings to the U.S., they did manage to bring all of their photo albums and memorabilia.  Now, the only memories that remain from Haleh’s childhood are through her family photos and the stories shared with her through the collection she has preserved. “I would take my photos into work and start scanning them,” says Haleh. “Because of the revolution, I have family in four continents. … And it really would get my cousins calling going, ‘Where did you get these photos? We've never seen them.’” Haleh says anytime you start a business, you have to go with the energy of its growth and changes. Haleh’s first client had a house full of 45,000 photos that needed to be organized and archived. While she knew she wanted to do photobooks, this client needed the organization and archival aspect first. She listened and led with service. “It's so incredible to learn someone's story and for them to be able to not now have access to it,” says Haleh. The first step is to gather all the items – photos, albums, scrapbooks, films and videos, and then to have a goal. That’s where curation comes in. “We learn about their family birthdays, passings, weddings. And we do a family chart,” she says. Once everything is organized, her team digitizes, renames, and redates all the files.  Haleh still works on the creative side, designing curated photo books. One of her recent projects involved creating a book that a client used to propose to his girlfriend. “We're not just the scanning agency. We make sure that we understand your story, and we apply that to your assets.” To contact Haleh Shoa at Picturli or to download the 7-step guide to archiving and downloading your photos, visit https://www.picturelifecurated.com  Other GoG episodes you might want to check out: Does Your Story Matter? (More Than You Know) with Catherine Nikkel https://sarahwalton.com/your-story-matters/  How to Make Money as an Artist with Miriam Schulman https://sarahwalton.com/make-money-as-an-artist/  You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton   Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people! (If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can watch this quick tutorial.) #PhotoArchiving #PhotoSorting #FamilyMemories #OrganizeYourPhotos #FamilyPhotos #PhotoBookDesign #AskExpert #BusinessCoach #IntuitiveBusinessCoach