Episode 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.
Celebrating family photos
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 all the time – 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. when they moved here, 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, we 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.’”
Lessons from starting a business
Haleh says anytime you start a business, you have to go with the energy of its growth and changes. When she started, Haleh's her 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.
“Another aspect is to really get out of your own way and share the love and the excitement with everyone that you know,” says Haleh. “I think a lot of women in particular get really shy about shining their light and what they're creating.”
She says another important lesson for anyone who wants to start their own business is that sometimes a "no" is a gift. When you really want that client or project, and the door closes, that happens for a reason.
“And it happened for you, not to you,” says Haleh. “If you have zero clients and that one says no, it's much more devastating. But that is part of it. It's like when you're learning how to walk, you're going to fall a lot.”
Process for archiving photographs and family videos
One of Haleh’s first clients was an African American historian who had letters from his grandfather going back to the 1800s. When they were done, the client donated the rare letters to the Schoenberg Institute. A few weeks later, the institute called the client to let him know more letters from another family tied to his grandfather had been donated as well.
“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, says Haleh. That’s where the 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 and 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 where she carefully crafted some of their first DMs and texts to one another.
“We're not just the scanning agency. We make sure that we understand your story and we apply that to your assets.”
Free gift for listeners
To contact Haleh Shoa at Picturli or to download the 7-step guide to archiving and downloading your photos, visit https://www.picturelifecurated.com
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